Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 6th, 2018

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

I think you talked a bit about the increase—

[Michel Doiron]

Yes.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

—and explained some of the reasons why.

What resources do you need to get there? Why are you not meeting these targets? What can Parliament do? What funds do you need, resources, to get there?

[Michel Doiron]

Thank you for the question, and I thank you for your efforts.

This is not the first time you've hammered me on how many resources I need. I'm very happy that we received the $42 million.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

I'm sure, but it's not enough.

What is enough? We're trying to get that number.

[Michel Doiron]

There are numbers, but the issue we actually have is—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

You said there are numbers.

Can you tell us what the numbers are? What is it that you've requested that you need to meet those standards?

[Michel Doiron]

I mean, the $42 million we have now will go a long way—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

But that wasn't what you requested. We know you need more.

Can you tell us what you need, what those numbers are?

[Michel Doiron]

I can't because it's government privilege and it was given to cabinet. We have asked for money and we received the $42 million, and I'm very thankful for that.

What we need to remember is that there's a lag between the time the money is approved and the time the production starts going. If you look at that lag, I have hired 42 adjudicators already this year, but they are not yet producing. Why? I got authority in June to do it. The people are hired. We are now in training. They are going to start producing in January.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

I appreciate that—the time that it takes—but my concern is that clearly we know we don't have enough employees. We're not being told, because it's cabinet privilege I guess, what we actually need. That is disappointing.

I think if we knew what was necessary, we'd be trying to fight for you to get that. It's disgraceful that the government isn't giving you what you need. Veterans shouldn't be waiting.

I know Mr. Kitchen asked a lot of questions around the call centre, and I really appreciate his work on this. You can expect to be connected in two minutes. That's a standard that you've set. Your target for that two-minute connection is set at 80% of the time, but you're only meeting that 66% of the time.

What's it going to take to get people to answer the phone? We have to have someone on the other end or people fall through the cracks.

[Michel Doiron]

Thank you. That's actually an excellent example.

Some of these standards are difficult to reach. If I take the phones—and I thank you for bringing it up because I wasn't thinking of that one—when we brought in the seven new programs in April, the government could not give me enough money, and I can't put enough people.... I guess they could give me enough money—I shouldn't say that—but I can't put enough people on the phones to answer every phone in April and May. It would be improper use of dollars to do that.

Unfortunately, that means for the rest of the year, I'm catching up. It was the same thing last year when we upped the DA. That month, my accessibility on the phones for April was about 10%. Everybody wanted to know how come they had $40,000 in their bank account and where that money came from.

The rest of the year, we're doing pretty good, but we lost a year in the first month and a half.... Even if you give me the money, I can't get enough people in the seats to answer the phones. Then, what do I do with the people after, because the volume is not there? It's a spike. We have to manage these funds very prudently—it is taxpayers' money—and I feel very strongly about that.

I think where we need to go is not additional money. I think we need to invest—and we are, with PFL—in a new way with our systems and maximizing the use of electronic systems. It's not necessarily the number of people—

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Why is that not happening right now?

[Michel Doiron]

We're working towards April 1 on PFL, and PFL will be a whole different system of application.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

The idea is to clear the backlog, then, right after that's implemented. How long will it take after that?

[Michel Doiron]

I'm hoping.... I don't know.

PFL will not clear the backlog. What PFL will do going forward is that it will be a lot faster to receive your disability payment. It's a different system and the controls are all in the system. The backlog will be in existence, and I'll have to get rid of that backlog as we're working on the new one.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Phil McColeman]

Mr. Samson.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Thank you.

Thank you, all, for being here today and for continuing to help us find these answers that are so important.

I'll continue on the same topic of questions. I'm puzzled as well as to the wait time. I realize we have 32% more ask and I realize 60% are new, so it puts enormous stress. I know we're doing a lot, with the joint committee between the CAF and VAC. When I'm hearing that some of the reasons for the delays are due to the fact that something is missing or we have to go back to CAF and find out, I really don't like that. We talked about how we can ensure that we get this right.

There are two things. Do we have a tracking system? Maybe this question has already been answered, but if I put in an application, can I go on weekly and find out where my application is, what desk it's at, how long I should have to wait? I was superintendent of a French school board, and when there was request for maintenance for anything, you put the request in and weekly you could track it to see who did what, where it's at and who's now supposed to take a decision and if they took it yet.

Do we have a complex system in the process that the veteran can go look for?

[Michel Doiron]

Yes, we do. It's not as advanced as it could be. Under PFL it will be much better, but we do. What's frustrating for the veteran is that it may stay in the same place for two months. I get complaints about that. I'm being very honest, I get complaints on it.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

As you should.

[Michel Doiron]

Absolutely. I'm not saying I shouldn't.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

What would be the reason it got stuck for two months?

[Michel Doiron]

I'm going to try to explain the process very quickly.

There is a unit that prepares the file. The file comes in and there's a unit that.... If you go on your system My VAC Account, on which we have over 80,000 people, the system will say it's in file prep. It may be in file prep for many weeks because your documentation is not complete. The veteran may think it is complete. By the time we go back to the veteran or we go to the military for a file or so on and so forth...but it stays there and it doesn't say the reasoning for why it's there.

Then it will go to adjudications. It may be in adjudications for many weeks for the same reason. That's why I'm saying—

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I'm not trying to be difficult, but if I buy a ticket from Air Canada and I start answering the info I need to require and I press the go button, it says, “No, you're not going anywhere, buddy. You didn't answer question three. You didn't get question four.”

If we had that process, they couldn't file unless that was happening. If we had a caseworker who's working with each—and again, I don't have all the details—ensuring that all the data and information is there, then we'd be able to do it.

How can we make it better? Because we need to make it better. You'd agree with me, of course.

[Michel Doiron]

Of course.