Veterans Affairs Committee on June 12th, 2019

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you.

Changing gears a little, from what I understand, VAC is projecting expenditures of about $44 million for the education and training benefit. How many veterans do you think would receive the $40,000 after six years of service? Do you have any idea of the numbers?

[Rear-Admiral, Retired) Elizabeth Stuart (Assistant Deputy Minister, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Services Branch, Department of Veterans Affairs]

I don't have the numbers down to that level of detail. I know our current projection, in accordance with what we're seeing in the main estimates, is an additional infusion of $39 million for this year. We are estimating around 2,400 successful applicants.

I don't have a breakdown further than that, but I can get that.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Ms. Ludwig.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

My question will start off with Mr. Doiron.

Following up on Mr. Eyolfson's question about hiring, we've heard from a number of veterans that they would like to see veterans on front-line services. When you are looking at qualifications, is there any extra tick box for a veteran, a spouse of a veteran or an active member, or an older child who has the qualifications?

[Michel Doiron]

Not for a child, but we do look for the veterans and, where we can, the spouses of veterans. The veteran still needs to meet the requirements of the job. A case manager is a case manager. It's a social worker. There are qualifications that are necessary.

We are working hard to recruit more veterans. We're still not at the numbers that Veterans Affairs would like to have when it comes to veterans. We have a unit that is working to recruit, not only with us but with other departments of government, and actually in the private sector, to bring more attention to that. For us, we give preference to veterans if they meet the requirements of the job.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you. That's good news.

Is there any preference at all for their spouses, because they've worked side by side...? We say that when a member serves, a family serves.

[Michel Doiron]

We don't have a program for spouses, but maybe—

[RAdm (Ret'd) Elizabeth Stuart]

If I may, our focus is with the Veterans Hiring Act coming into force in July 2015 and the statutory and regulatory obligations, in particular addressing the repurposing of individuals who were released from the Canadian Armed Forces due to injury and illness. That's our primary focus.

The deputy and the minister at the time in fact issued a challenge to their colleagues to increase veteran representation, and the Public Service Commission has some statistics to indicate we are doing quite well across the public service in that regard.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Okay.

[RAdm (Ret'd) Elizabeth Stuart]

I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself. I'm Elizabeth Stuart, ADM, CFO and corporate services, and a proud veteran of 32 years myself. It's a privilege to serve at VAC.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you for your service.

[Michel Doiron]

If I may, though, on the families, we are working with the military resource family centres closest to bases, if we have jobs. We know of that transient.... We do work hand in hand with some of their programming, to assist.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

My next question is actually on the military family resource centres.

Are you seeing an uptake in veterans using those services?

[Michel Doiron]

It would depend on the location. I think that's the best way I can answer that.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Right.

[Michel Doiron]

Some locations are very busy. I can think of a place like Trenton. I can think of Petawawa. Some other areas are not so busy, but we work with them to support them. The funding is there to get the people to come in and also to publicize it.

We did start a review of some of these locations. One of the issues we found out is that maybe the services were not publicized enough because there's a fair amount of services available, but every MFRC is an entity on its own. They're all a bit different in what they offer, and it's really because of the local flavour. Is it jobs? Is it family support? Do they need day care?

It's a little different but one of the things that came out of an initial review of them is that in some areas...and I do say “some”, because some are like Trenton, which I know has a very well-known and well-run MFRC. However, for some other ones it's a publicity issue. It varies from MFRC to MFRC.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

We'll end with Ms. Wagantall.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Our colleagues at the government operations committee recently learned that the government bargained away seniority rights for veterans transitioning from the Canadian Armed Forces to the civil service. This took place in the last round of collective bargaining. Transition, as you know, is already a very difficult step for Canadian Armed Forces members to navigate. I'm just wondering, were you aware of this?

[Michel Doiron]

I was made aware of this I think maybe two weeks ago in another meeting.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Okay. Thank you.

Budget 2019 provides VAC with $13.5 million to improve its transition services. I think this is a thing—the seamless transition between VAC and DND—that's so important. Several of the measures being considered will be developed in partnership with CAF and are under the authority of the Department of National Defence.

On the $13.5 million, I don't know the spread—if that's per year, for the year or what—but that seems like peanuts to do what needs to be done here. Since the Department of National Defence has the authority, are they also putting a lot of money in there? What's happening?

[Michel Doiron]

Rear-Admiral Stuart will be able to talk about maybe the funding itself—

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Just briefly on the funding, then, that's fine.

[Michel Doiron]

We will receive $13.9 million. The Canadian Armed Forces have received an additional amount.

What we're doing is that we have a joint steering committee. I co-chair one of the committees. We're working hand in hand to advance this, but we each have our funds. The amount you mentioned is for our initiatives under the direction of some of us, depending on the initiative, but we are working very closely. I think General Misener appeared in front of your committee to talk about that. General Misener and Libby Douglas appeared together, I think, and are some of co-leads.