Veterans Affairs Committee on June 9th, 2016

[Elizabeth Douglas]

Anne-Marie, do you want to take that as well?

[Anne-Marie Pellerin]

I will.

The pilot sites are in four of the 32 military family resource centres.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

I thought it was seven. Sorry.

[Anne-Marie Pellerin]

Sorry. I may have misspoken. We have seven pilot sites out of a total of 32 MFRCs across Canada. At those seven pilot sites, we have provided the funding for the MFRC organizations to hire what we call “veteran family coordinators”. They, obviously, provide the services to medically released veterans. The pilot is for medically released veterans.

However, we have made the decision not to necessarily restrict it to medically releasing. If a veteran or family presents, they will not be turned away. Likewise, at the non-pilot sites, we have taken a position that we will not turn a veteran away. The MFRC organizations are helping to support at non-pilot sites, to the extent they are able, with their local programming.

The other aspect is the family information line, and of course the website, which would be national and available to any released member.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Is that it?

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Yes. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Mr. Kitchen is next.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for being here, and thank you for your service.

It's great to see a great working relationship between the two of you; however, we've heard from people that there seems to be a disconnect. The people who have come to talk to us make it sound as though there isn't this working relationship amongst you. That transition stage, as you go from one to the other, seems to be an issue.

I'm wondering, because you have such a great relationship among yourselves, whether you actually communicate with each other about that transition process and actually assess that from time to time—yearly, every five years, or whatever—and ask what you need to be doing in that transition.

[BGen Nicolas Eldaoud]

I'll start, and I'll also ask Captain Langlois to add to it.

Just so you know, from my perspective—and Captain Langlois will talk more about the tactical level where it's happening—I will tell you that if I don't get a phone call two or three times a week from Veterans Affairs—and we have a liaison officer there—it's because I'm on leave. Really, we talk all the time, and I call them. We hear about issues all the time.

I can assure you that from the Chief of the Defence Staff, who gets letters, to my boss, and to every level of the higher leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces, they all come to me saying the same thing: Nick, solve it. That's when the changes start happening.

I talk to JPSU, but also to our VAC liaison officer. Within hours, those things are being discussed. Obviously, then,we say, “Let's make sure this doesn't happen again” so we don't drop the ball again when that happens.

[Capt(N) Marie-France Langlois]

Thank you for the question, sir.

We're doing everything we can to work together.

Here are some interesting facts.

In the headquarters here in Ottawa, in the transition services cell, we have two seconded employees from VAC. We also have a liaison officer from VAC within the headquarters. We have two military personnel in Charlottetown, and a liaison officer from the military with Veterans Affairs. Across the country in the IPSCs, the integrated personnel support centres, we're working hand in hand. There are people from Veterans Affairs. We have the health services. We have the family liaison officer and the service coordinator from CAF. The chain of command is involved with the member to better provide the services for transition or to focus on their return to duty, so it's at all levels.

When there are issues that are more systemic, they are examined at a tactical level. They're brought up to headquarters in Ottawa, and we discuss them at our level.

[Elizabeth Douglas]

Thank you for the question.

We certainly realized at VAC that we want to continue to improve the transition process. That is also why we have seamless transition as one of our priorities, and why we have the CAF-VAC seamless transition working group and task force. It is something we want to continuously improve. It is not something that is static. The action plan and the project plan have not been finalized yet as to how we are going to continue to make these improvements, but we are working on it. When this is completed, we will be more than pleased to share it with this committee or to come back to this committee.

I am going to turn to Anne-Marie because, again, she chairs from VAC. Is there anything you could add to that, Anne-Marie?

[Anne-Marie Pellerin]

I think the comments are quite good and encompassing. If you have another question, I would certainly—

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Do you keep track of what the specific issues might be? In general, you mentioned that you get phone calls and someone says, “Handle it.” Do you keep track of that so that you have stats to say, “These are the main issues. These are the main things we have to focus on”?

[BGen Nicolas Eldaoud]

My question to the CO of the JPSU is always the same—after we deal with the issue, obviously—“Why? Why did this happen?” We always discuss that, because what you just mentioned here is certainly my concern and my boss's concern. Making a mistake once is okay, but you can't do it twice.

The answer to your question is yes. We always make sure that we close the loop or we understand what happened so that it doesn't happen again, absolutely.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Do you publish those?

[BGen Nicolas Eldaoud]

No, sir.

Unless.... Captain Langlois, do you have something to add on that?

[Capt(N) Marie-France Langlois]

Not to my knowledge....

[BGen Nicolas Eldaoud]

No, we don't.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Is it possible that we can see that at all and see what some of the issues might be?

[BGen Nicolas Eldaoud]

As I said, we don't publish them, but we will look into what we have discovered in the last few months, for example. Would that satisfy you, sir?

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

That would be very helpful. Thank you.

Do I have more time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

You have 50 seconds.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Okay.

Ms. Douglas, I am just wondering if you assess the level of knowledge of the veterans about the services that are available to them. In other words, I know a lot of times people tell them they provide all these services. I come from a health care background, and the bottom line is that, when I talk to my patients, oftentimes I will tell them.... I have been very fortunate that I haven't had to say too many tragic things to people, but when I say that to them, I often ask them, “Okay, this is what I have said to you. What did you hear?”, because what they hear and what I told them oftentimes are different. I am wondering if you follow up on that. Do you assess that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

You will have to make that a very quick answer, please.

[Elizabeth Douglas]

Thank you for that.

We have not been assessing whether they actually understand what we have been saying, but we try to work with them to make sure there is a sense that they know what programs and benefits they are entitled to.