Evidence of meeting #2 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 subcommittee.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Do we have a good list of what facilities are available in all the provinces to date, and what the potential is?
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Yes. Or do we just not get involved at that level?
The service comes through the provinces, right?
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Is part of the problem that we don't have enough?
Committee Researcher
Well, some of the services come through the provinces, but there are many agreements between the federal government and the provinces to provide services to veterans. There are mental health clinics, federally funded clinics, that are hosted in provincial institutions. There are also some other relationships: long-term care, for example. That's something that has been the subject of negotiations between the provinces and the federal government. There are places where you have what they call reserved beds in provincial institutions. In other places, they're called community institutions. The federal government pays for veterans who are going into a provincial institution.
You have all sorts of agreements, but it's federal-provincial negotiation on these things.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
This might have been alluded to earlier, but I just want to be clear on it. The three major reports from the 41st Parliament, will those be distributed to the committee?
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Would you please do that? I think it's really important that we understand the work that was done in the 41st Parliament. Obviously, they had in-depth studies and came up with a series of recommendations that your very good summary seemed to highlight. I want to make sure we're not redoing the work, that we're actually focusing on making sure those recommendations are implemented, and that we're highlighting the ones that haven't necessarily come to recommendation yet, such as suicide prevention and mental health, which I think this committee probably should be looking into.
It would be helpful if those could be distributed.
Thank you.
Liberal
Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
I know there's some data available on veterans. We had a meeting with the ombudsman, and we saw these large numbers. Have there been any particular surveys to find out what the needs of the veterans are? Are those surveys available?
Committee Researcher
Yes. Statistics Canada with Veterans Affairs made a couple of extensive surveys on the needs and well-being of veterans. I prepared a document highlighting these and the main issues. I could distribute that.
Liberal
Bob Bratina Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
It's interesting, because my sister was a career service person. She told me that when she left the forces, the hardest thing in transition was the fact that for the previous 30 years or so, everything was done for her. You could go anywhere in the world and there would be a place for you to go and so on. Then immediately as you went out the door, there was nothing.
I'm not sure whether that kind of information comes through a StatsCan survey. I'm just asking how we can get the broadest sense of the data we need.
Committee Researcher
There is a committee report from 2012 and another one from 2014. Really, you have a lot of testimony in there that will highlight that.
Liberal
Liberal
Sherry Romanado Liberal Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC
Further to what my colleague Mr. Bratina was saying, maybe in the outreach we're going to be doing, if that's where we're going with individuals and groups and so on, we could identify any gaps that were not captured by the survey or if the data is too old, if it's not relevant or if there are other issues. Maybe through a combination of surveys, a combination of outreach efforts, whether with individuals or organized groups, we could fill those gaps so we could get an accurate picture of where we currently are and attempt to take the temperature in a sense.
I don't think we should put aside the great work that's already been done, not at all, but maybe we'll be able to look at it through a fresh lens.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
At the last committee, there was a unanimous vote was there not, on those recommendations?
Committee Researcher
For the June 2014 report, there was a press conference at which all parties really made strong arguments to convince the government to move forward with all these recommendations. The June 2014 report is a very important one. It really summarizes issues that have been raised for the last eight to 10 years. It was an important step.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis
Okay.
Moving forward, everybody should get any information they want for the work plan to the clerk by Sunday at the latest.
Subcommittee members, after the break, we'll get our calendars out and see about the time for Monday and then we'll see everybody back here Tuesday and hopefully get the work plan done and voted on.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
This might have been covered earlier, but I'm just wondering when an agenda would be circulated for the Tuesday meeting. How much in advance is that normally done?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis
It should be two days. Official agendas should be out two days in advance, and ones that aren't so official, maybe with permission, 24 hours. It should be as soon as we can. Procedurally, it is 48 hours, but I think moving forward with what we have to do with the work plan, everybody will forgive us and we can get it done on Tuesday, and if not, we'll finish it up on Thursday.
With that, I'll need a motion to adjourn.
Mr. Fraser.