Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone.
I would like to begin by thanking the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs for inviting us to help explain the difficulties that veterans face when they submit a claim to the Department of Veterans Affairs for benefits or compensation to which they are entitled.
I hope the answers to the questions that will be asked today will enable you, in a direct and helpful way, to understand the process aimed at facilitating veterans' access to their benefits, so that the processing of pending and future claims for these benefits will take less time.
First of all, I should note that our group, Veterans UN-NATO Canada, has over 9,000 veterans—new generation veterans and others—throughout Canada. We also have service points for Canadian veterans who live abroad, in places like Germany, France, and Thailand, and who have the right to receive all the benefits to which they are entitled.
We have set up a very effective communication system, which includes more than 27 private or secret Facebook sites, an official national website at www.veteransunnatohq.com, and my Facebook page, Fondateur Veterans Un Nato Canada, which is devoted to the accomplishments and events to date, and is open to the general public. These sites enable us to get information out very quickly, and save lives.
Through our group, we've become acquainted with veterans who give of themselves voluntarily, without the slightest compensation. What they have is heart, along with natural abilities they can use to help their brothers and sisters in arms. All these veterans have the same objective: to secure the appropriate benefits and care for all veterans in need who are having trouble navigating through the relevant benefit processes put in place by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In this regard, I would like to introduce Ms. Brigitte Laverdure, who is part of the Veterans UN-NATO Canada group and who, as a peer support worker, has looked after more than 42 cases in four years, with a 100% success rate. The answers to the questions she will be asked today will show you how challengingly complex the department's administrative system is when it comes to us veterans obtaining the benefits we're entitled to. We have the evidence to back up everything Ms. Laverdure will be saying today. A list of names that must remain confidential, and cannot be disclosed here, can be made available for your consultation outside the context of these proceedings.
We are speaking here about veterans who achieved success with their applications, and who, thanks to peer support workers like Ms. Laverdure, now enjoy a better quality of life. As a result, these people, whose personal and family situations were critical and desperate, are still among us. I can assure you that I know what I am talking about: I was one of those people.
Bear in mind that it's not the mission of Veterans UN-NATO Canada to do administrative work and complete case files for the purposes of benefit or other applications. Rather, our mission is to bridge the gap between the street and the Department of Veterans Affairs. This is why, after our involvement, the veterans concerned are entrusted to the care of other veterans, who have the skills necessary to give them urgent help in the short, medium and long term.
I want to point out that many of the instances in which we managed to obtain benefits and care for veterans were cases that had been rejected by other official bodies that provide assistance. The veterans had been told that, according to the administrative criteria of those bodies, they were not entitled to the benefits or assistance programs involved. This suggests that these bodies are misinformed about the criteria or the benefits to which veterans are entitled.
Since the creation of Veterans UN-NATO Canada some eight years ago, nearly 500 veterans have benefited from front-line assistance through our involvement. When I say front-line, I am talking about finding a veteran in major psychological or financial difficulty, who might even have become homeless. The task at that point is to help the person out of that predicament within about four weeks, and ensure that the person can obtain a guaranteed income, and personalized medical and psychosocial support, through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
I will now turn things over to Ms. Laverdure so she can answer your questions.
Thank you.