Veterans Affairs Committee on Oct. 6th, 2016

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

That's great. That is very good to hear.

We've had a lot of meetings where we hear a lot of things that are disheartening. It's nice to be hearing some potential good news here.

In regard to getting things set up, one of the challenges which a lot of members have talked about is that when you're in the Department of National Defence, you have a physician. Once you're in VAC, you're looked after through the provincial health care system for your health care needs and you have to find a doctor.

I'm an emergency physician, and I see patients come to my department for all of their medical care because, after a year of trying, they can't find a family doctor. Would your recommendations have a plan so that perhaps between National Defence and VAC, it could have someone set up with a regular family doctor for their care under VAC before they're released?

[Gary Walbourne]

Well, I do know that if members are hurt while in service and if they're transitioning out, it is the responsibility of the Canadian Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada to ensure that the medical care will continue after release. Now how they do that, through the contracts they may have in place if they can't find a family doctor.... But there is a regulation in place, now, that this care must continue. So when I say not to release a member until everything is in place, well, that would be one of the things that would have to be in place. But that is standard operating procedure today. They don't release the member until they have the medical follow-on in place for the member.

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

Good. Okay.

Part of the medical care is medical records. We've heard a lot of testimony that it takes a long time to get medical records. Would these recommendations assume there would be a robust system that medical records would also be transferred over and in the possession of the receiving medical care practitioner before the member is released?

[Gary Walbourne]

In my process, once we've adjudicated that the member was hurt in service, the medical file can follow along. It doesn't have to be as rapid, because what the person needs to do is to determine what that malady's impact is on quality of life for the members, and determine where they would fall on the level of disability or service benefit.

Moving the records has always been an issue, and it continues to be an issue. I think the minister said earlier that they've taken it from 71 days down to 19 days. That's excellent performance over the last 18 months or so, but there's still some work to do.

The biggest part is getting the adjudication piece. Was it caused or aggravated by your service? It takes the longest amount of time. That's why the full file has to be completed and sent over. In my world, the only thing we send over is confirmation that the member was hurt in service, and this malady that she or he is releasing for is insurable under the programs and services that are in place.

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

All right.

This is good. I guess this is a fortunate difficulty in that the questions are being answered in a straightforward manner. I was assuming the answers were going to take longer, but you're being very straightforward, which is actually helpful.

As part of the transition process, all the veterans have talked about the importance of their families in that. Bringing families into the loop as to what the process is while under the Department of National Defence and setting up, would this be part of this process as well?

[Gary Walbourne]

I think for it to be a holistic approach to helping the member transition, the families have to be involved. The military says that the family is strength behind the uniform. I'm a firm believer in that. To transition a member out and not have the family involved to understand what's next and what life looks like in the future, I think would be a hole in the service. My hope is that the concierge service will not only take the member, but that also any questions, comments, or concerns from the family could also be addressed through the same portal.

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

Thank you. Your assistance here and this report are extremely helpful. I congratulate you on your good work.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Go ahead, Mr. Bratina.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I want to get to the matter of the backlog. Is the number of releasing members fairly predictable, or does it vary a lot from year to year?

[Gary Walbourne]

It's fairly predictable. I think the number that was given to committee by another party was that there's an 8% attrition rate. Of that, I think about anywhere from 1,500 to 1,600 are medically released, and that's been a pretty constant number over the last number of years. Of those 1,500—I'll use that number—about 600 are attributable to service. The number has been fairly consistent over a number of years. There hasn't been a great spike or change in it.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

If there's a reasonable predictability, we should have the resources in place, knowing that these numbers are going to be coming out.

On the backlog, is there a variety of cases—and I'm thinking on the notion of a concierge. For instance, if you're in the lineup for security at the airport and you're not getting through in time for your flight, somebody asks, “Is anybody on the six o'clock flight?” Would there be a way of eliciting simpler problems that may not require all of the assistance? In a “take a number” situation, you just have to wait your turn. I'm not suggesting that others with more complicated issues would have to wait longer, but perhaps another scenario could be created along the concierge line that could expedite simpler cases versus obviously more complicated ones.

Does that resonate at all?

[Gary Walbourne]

That's where the efficiency and effectiveness would come from this program. Once you've gone through a repeated pattern a few times, you should be able to pick up the commonalities.

With the commonalities, then, let's attack that commonality. What is causing that malady? That's for the Canadian Armed Forces to go back and review, but what do we need to do now to make the process easier going into Veterans Affairs Canada?

I know they do it for tinnitus now. They have a process that helps get those programs through very quickly. I think all that's required is an audiogram.

They can do that, but I think we're going to have to show patterns and where things are happening. I do believe Veterans Affairs Canada could react very quickly to a streamlined service for that particular line.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

With regard to a concierge, we have veterans scattered all over the country. Could there be a virtual concierge service, or would certain particular centres across the country be where that service would be available?

[Gary Walbourne]

I think you'd have to have a physical presence in the larger centres where we're having the most retirements, people leaving the Canadian Armed Forces.

As an example, this week on our web page we've released a live chat. We can chat with members as they are going through filling out a form or if they have a question. The technology is available to expand. We don't have to have a physical footprint everywhere, but I do believe at the larger centres we need to build that centre of expertise, understand what's happening, have somewhere that they can collect and collate data. I think we have to have that, but I do believe we could deliver a lot of these services virtually. There are approximately 670,000 veterans in this country, so we're going to need more than just physical brick and mortar to be able to deal with their needs.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

One of the possible investments could be the apparatus in various remote locations to allow for the interaction to take place.

[Gary Walbourne]

Technology gives us a host of possibilities.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

How do you get input from veterans? Obviously, you do. Are you in regular contact with veterans, and how do they get in touch with you?

[Gary Walbourne]

I need to get on the record and make it very clear that there is a veterans ombudsman.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Not veterans. I'm confusing the two.

[Gary Walbourne]

I think a lot of people are doing that. That's okay.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I'm sorry, I know what you do.

Go ahead.

[Gary Walbourne]

I'll answer the first question. In three and half years as deputy ombudsman with Veterans Affairs, I built a lot of good relationships, a lot of people who've become almost colleagues, who helped me with advice and guidance. So I do keep those lines open.

The Canadian Armed Forces members can get through to us in a multitude of ways. We have a web presence. We have the live chat which I just talked about. We have phones. You have to remember that when a member comes to us, we're an office of last resort for serving members. The member has to use the mechanisms that are in place. Whether it's a grievance process or an appeal to the chain of command, that has to happen before the member gets to me.

Once a member gets to me, that member has pretty well exhausted all the things that are in place. This year we'll handle approximately 12,000 inbound phone calls. It's sad to say that we'll open over 2,000 cases this year, which is a 25% increase over last year. Our service is readily available for all serving members.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

What's your satisfaction ratio in the work that you do?

[Gary Walbourne]

Personally, I probably would beat myself up the most. Robyn can confirm this number, but I think 95% of all investigations that come to us get turned around in favour of the member or we get the member on the right path. I think that's a pretty good track record.

From our systemic perspective, I think the three recommendations we've made are going to be accepted by the department in one form or another. I'm not saying that my recommendations are exactly to the word, but I think any version of that is going to help ease the process.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Thank you.