Absolutely.
Evidence of meeting #101 for Veterans Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was homelessness.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #101 for Veterans Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was homelessness.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
We heard from you, Ms. Le, about the $5-million shortfall. The municipal and provincial governments are saying that it's not their responsibility, that veterans are a federal responsibility.
They've served Canada. They expect Canada to honour its obligation.
Is this leaving this project in jeopardy right now, or were you able to source that $5-million gap?
5 p.m.
Executive Director, Multifaith Housing Initiative
I'm very confident that we're going to be able to fundraise that $5 million. We started our campaign six months ago, and we're already at $2 million, and we're still in the quiet phase. There's a lot of public support for veterans.
The issue is how long it will take us to do it. I expect that it will take us two to three years. If this project sits on ice for two to three years, I can tell you that the cost of developing the project will go up by $2 million to $3 million.
5 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Absolutely. I'm sure.
I sat on local government, and it is challenging with the downloading that's already happened over decades.
When it comes to veterans, do you see that the national housing strategy should have looked at veterans and created 100% funding for veterans' facilities?
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
That being said, you talked about the layer of bureaucracy. You just identified how difficult and challenging it is to navigate that.
Do you think it would be appropriate to have just one source funding, one source application, so you're not getting put through all of the different challenges of interjurisdictional and departmental challenges that might be faced?
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Multifaith Housing Initiative
Yes, that would be really lovely.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
You talked about not relying on any ongoing funding.
We just had Angus Stanfield here, a great Canadian in Victoria running the Cockrell House. They have no funding. They are doing all of this on donations. It's costing them about $1,100 a unit per veteran to do this, and they're not getting any funding from Veterans Affairs.
Do you feel confident that you're going to be able to run this facility without any funding? I imagine it would help to have some ongoing, long-term, stable funding to ensure that veterans' needs are being met.
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Multifaith Housing Initiative
We have, and we do. It's the beauty that once you invest in capital....
Right now, there seems to be a very big move towards investing in programs instead of investing in capital. However, if you invest in capital, then the project is self-sustaining. We will be collecting rents from these tenants, because it's not transitional, not a shelter, and it's not short term. They will be paying rent of $479 a month, which is the shelter allowance rate for ODSP in Ontario. We will be collecting that rent, and with that rent and a mortgage of no more than $1 million, we can sustain this.
The Royal Canadian Legion has committed ongoing funding of $100,000 a year to pay for the mental health supports, and then we have a lot of relationships with different volunteer organizations that will be doing peer mentoring services, etc., in the building.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
You have 139 units, 300 to 400 people, at different sites. That's great work—exceptional work.
How do you identify the percentage who will be veterans at those facilities?
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Multifaith Housing Initiative
In the other facilities, we take people out of the shelter system in Ottawa, and most of them are families. We have a lot of newcomers to Canada. There are not a lot of veterans in our other facilities currently.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
5:05 p.m.
Scarborough North, Lib.
Thank you.
I want to start by thanking the three witnesses here today.
You clearly speak with such care and compassion for our veterans, and the work you do is tremendous. It is a great service to veterans and to our country, so I want to commend our witnesses for their hard work. This care and compassion is exemplified by the investments that I know over the past three years have been made to support veterans—a total of $10 billion.
One of the challenges, as you mentioned, Mr. Cléroux, is to be able to identify veterans and to offer and provide the types of support they need. I'm glad you gave the example of the veteran who was living in a tent and all he wanted was a lamp and a bicycle to get to work with. Of course, there are many other resources and services that can be provided to support veterans like him.
Mr. Cléroux, I know that your organization offers direct financial assistance through a number of different funds. One of the new funds that was launched April 1 of this year is the veterans emergency fund.
Do you know if that fund is being accessed to its potential in providing the $2,500 per veteran per year for extenuating circumstances, and to help pay for food, shelter and other situations that come up that veterans need support for?
5:05 p.m.
President, Royal Canadian Naval Benevolent Fund
As far as I know, yes, it is. As I said, we have a great partnership with VAC. When they refer clients to us, it's because they cannot help them due to the way their fund is set up, but they will help first.
It's the same thing with the Legion. We often get into a partnership with the Legion, where they'll ask us to share emergency funding in those kinds of cases. We're happy to do that.
5:05 p.m.
Scarborough North, Lib.
That's great. It sounds like it's being used.
The pension for life is rolling out in April. That fund, as you've mentioned, is for veterans and the pain and suffering they have endured as a result of service-related injury or illness. Hopefully, that fund will be utilized by the veterans that need it. It provides that monthly tax-free payment to them so that they can access the financial resources they are entitled to.
There's an application that must be filled out. What do you think needs to be done to ensure that veterans who are out there and suffering, who do have those service-related illnesses or injuries, are aware of the pension for life and are going to apply? How can we better reach out to those veterans to make sure that every veteran who deserves that payment gets it?
5:10 p.m.
President, Royal Canadian Naval Benevolent Fund
It's a very difficult question for me to answer. Using the associations—there are so many associations out there that care about veterans—I think is a good way to communicate.
Tom, do you have any ideas?
5:10 p.m.
Vice-President, Royal Canadian Naval Benevolent Fund
It's ongoing communication. When you think you've communicated enough, you have to communicate some more.
You have to access all of those resources that are available to you: newspapers, media, social media and the veterans support organizations that are out there doing the heavy lifting on the streets and helping. We have to access all of those and continue to push that message out there.
As well, the partnership between the Canadian Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs and that handshake and transition have to be strengthened.
5:10 p.m.
Scarborough North, Lib.
That's great.
Ms. Le, you mentioned Helmets to Hardhats. As I told the previous round of witnesses, I met with the Canadian Construction Association earlier today. They really want to attract more people to work in Canada's booming construction industry, and one of the groups they mentioned was veterans.
This sounds like something in that realm. Could you perhaps share with us a bit more about that program?
5:10 p.m.
Executive Director, Multifaith Housing Initiative
It's really important that when we build this project we use it to do as much good wherever we can, however we can and with every tool that we can use. Helmets to Hardhats is a really well-aligned organization that aligns with our values, in that they bring in veterans and retrain them from the military world into the civilian world through the trades. That's supported by the trade unions.
We have developed a relationship with them and we have committed to using as many Helmets to Hardhats participants as we can in the building. In our interviews with construction management, we made that a criteria for their being hired and getting the job of doing the construction on the project.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
Thanks very much.
Ms. Le, what's the origin of your organization? It's multi-faith, so it has many faiths.
