Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 21st, 2013

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

You can come back to it again.

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Am I supposed to stop too?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

No, no, please carry on. We don't interrupt a general, sir.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Thank you.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

You outrank us all.

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

No, I don't. I serve the public like you do as well—which is an important point. Remember, we all serve the public, but legally we have different monikers. That's an important nuance there in the question that you posed the other day.

At the end of the day, when you take a look at it, it's a suite of programs. That's what we would encourage the committee to look at. It's great to parse out the issue of the $298,000, but it's a lot more than the $298,000. There is case management. There is rehabilitation. There's support to the families, and the death benefit.

So it's a broad suite of programs that the committee needs to look at, I would submit, and look at what the entire whole of government does provide.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

Thank you very much, Mr. Semianiw.

We will move on to Mr. Chisu, please, for five minutes.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much, General Semianiw, for your presentation. It was excellent.

You were presenting to us the birth of the new Veterans Act. I understand that the research ended before 2005, and in 2005 the new Veterans Charter was enacted and so on.

Between 2006 and 2011 I served in Afghanistan. Just in the time I was there between January and August 2007 we had 24 casualities. In 15 years in Bosnia we had 23. That was a tremendous change in the approach to veterans.

So it's very nice—it's very, very, very nice—that you're speaking about the “living” charter. It is a living charter. It really is a living charter.

I listened to the minister speaking on Tuesday, and he was speaking about the 160 recommendations that have been fully or partially implemented to improve the new Veterans Charter. Apart from the legislative amendments, many were regulatory amendments, I understand, and refinements to the internal processes to improve how Veterans Affairs does business.

Have these types of changes been shown to be effective in providing better care and services to our veterans? This is also in the context, which I outlined, of 2006 to 2011.

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Mr. Chair, I think it's a great question. I would answer that question very simply, like this. If recruiting in the Canadian Armed Forces is a reflection of how well Veterans Affairs is looking after its soldiers, then the answer is outstandingly yes.

Recruiting in the Canadian Armed Forces was at its highest levels between 2006 and 2011. Therefore, I would submit that it did not go down; it went up. Therefore, I would submit that what men and women in uniform did see is that if they were injured.... That's the important point here: when they go out and serve the nation and are prepared to pay the ultimate sacrifice, if they're injured, will they and their families be looked after? We had that as we saw recruiting levels go up, and I can say that personally because I was responsible for recruiting in the Canadian Armed Forces from 2007 until 2010 or 2011. So clearly we see there was extremely strong support.

When you look at it all, one can say it's the best thing since ice cream and apple pie. But I would summit to you that ice cream and apple pie today is very different from what it was in 2005. It's changed—all the different varieties. That is because people looked at it, people ate it, and people said they wanted to see change, and that's what this is all about.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Minister Fantino stated that in focusing on how Veterans Affair does business overall, and not just amending the legislation, this approach has the potential of generating the best outcome for our veterans.

Do you agree with this philosophy?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Yes, and I think it's very important, Mr. Chair, to say it has the best potential. Clearly, as we've said, and as I believe personally, the new Veterans Charter is a solid, sound foundation to build on. You'll see that we've had a number of individuals even support that, if you've read the paper in the last couple of days.

What we're not hearing is people saying to scrap the charter, throw it out. What they want to see is changes to the charter, because when you get into the charter, you'll see the suite of benefits provided—be it case management, be it rehabilitation, be it mental health care. If you take a look at the mental health programs that are in place today, you'll see they're first rate, both at the Canadian Armed Forces and with Veterans Affairs. Clearly the answer is yes. But we have to build on it; we need to improve on it. Again, that's what the minister asked this committee to look at.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Okay, thank you.

Do I have more time?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

You have another minute, yes.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Okay.

The new Veterans Charter shifts the focus from a lifetime of disability to assisting our veterans, to pushing wellness and fulfillment. I will echo the minister's comment that more can and must be done to improve how we support veterans who are the most seriously injured.

In combatting homelessness and supporting families, how can Veterans Affairs apply the charter to best meet these aims? I say this because I have seen many veterans from Afghanistan and so on, and unfortunately I met two or three veterans on my way home. I have a veteran licence plate, so one was coming to me saying, “I served also”, but he was homeless.

How are we dealing with this?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

From a homeless perspective, what's in place right now—from a departmental kind of view and structure—is that in each of our Veterans Affairs locations and in another location to start with, we have one VAC staff member who has become better experienced or trained in the homeless issue. This is a more complex case than you'll normally find with veterans coming forward who may be injured.

It kind of works this way. If there is a veteran who we do find on the street—remember, one homeless veteran is too much, and we want to move away from there—it's about then connecting that veteran. We work with local police forces and with Jim Lowther and his organization on the east coast to connect the homeless veteran to the Department of Veterans Affairs to see what we can do to help. For example, we have an emergency fund that we can access quickly to immediately help a homeless veteran. But when you look at the homelessness file, you'll see it involves municipal, provincial, and federal roles. It's not just a federal role.

Right now we have four pilot projects ongoing across the country working with ESDC, formerly HRSDC, where we're supporting homeless veterans. We're doing a lot in this area to ensure that if we do find a homeless veteran, we provide him or her the support needed.

The second part is the prevention piece—

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

Sorry, you're way over the time, unfortunately.

Go ahead.

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

I'll be very quick. I'll only be ten minutes.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

On the prevention side, we're working with the Canadian Armed Forces to ensure that if we see that someone might be homeless or might have a mental health issue, we are be able to provide that support.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Peter Stoffer]

Thank you very much, General.

We'll now move on to the fighting Labradorian and Newfoundlander, Mr. Ryan Cleary, for five minutes, please.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses and thank you to the General for appearing before the committee.

As Peter said, I come from Newfoundland and Labrador, with a proud history of fighting Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. I attended a Remembrance Day service on November 11 in a town in an outport called Petty Harbour. It's about 20 minutes outside of St. John's. It was held in a church because the weather was pretty motley that day. In the church it was blocked to the rafters; there were 600 people there. There were children, there were middle-aged people, there were the elderly, and there were veterans. I have to say it was absolutely inspiring. The respect that we have for our veterans in Newfoundland and Labrador, again, is inspiring. But not all our veterans feel respected.

In Newfoundland and Labrador we will see the closure of one of those nine Veterans Affairs offices across Canada. I have two questions.

The first question comes from a quote from a veteran near Corner Brook, on the west coast of Newfoundland. He says:

A lot of these [veterans] are deaf, old and crippled and can’t understand anything they hear on the telephone. They need one-on-one service. That’s the way it has got to be.

What do you say to the senior, General, in terms of the closure of the Corner Brook Veterans Affairs offices? He and up to 1,500 people like him rely on that office for the services they need as veterans. What do you say to him about the closure of that office?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Mr. Chair, when you look at the issue of the closure of offices...the decision has been made to close offices, so we'll kind of put that aside. The next question is, what do you say? At the end of the day, if an individual crossed the country, as the minister mentioned and noted, if they do have challenges, if they're old, if they're 95 or 90, they can still call the Veterans Affairs number and get assistance and help on the phone to do what they have to do. If we're talking about case-managed veterans, we need to be very clear on this issue. If a veteran is a case-managed veteran and needs case management, the case manager will go to the veteran's location. The veteran does not have to drive anywhere to meet the case manager; the case manager will actually come to the veteran's location. That will ensure that veterans receive the support they need. The veterans who need the most support and the most need get it from their case manager. When the case manager drives from wherever it might be, whether from Halifax all the way up into Newfoundland, he will be able to sit with the veteran to deal with their needs.

At the same time, you're right, they can talk to folks on the phone to get the support they need. There are Service Canada locations across the country. They've added the 600—

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Excuse me, General, I have to interrupt.

Again, I'll read you the quote: “A lot of these veterans are deaf, old, and crippled....” The first word was “deaf”. When I asked you that question, at least twice in your response you said they can still call. Did you not hear what I asked you?

[LGen Walter Semianiw]

Mr. Chair, I did hear the question.

In the end, if they're deaf they can have someone else give them a hand to provide the support they might need to get hold of Veterans Affairs.

Mr. Chair, I apologize, I did hear the question. Clearly, the issue is to have someone there to help them in their time of need.