Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon.
Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to address you on this topic.
The Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping is, not surprisingly, composed of veterans with peacekeeping service in both military and police forces, and it has branches across the country.
In terms of service delivery, while we have seen some improvements recently, such as the reopening of Veterans Affairs offices and an emerging attitude to better assist veterans with the plethora of legislation, statutory regulation, departmental policy, and local procedures, the transition to veteran-centric service is far from complete. Indeed, an advisory group on service excellence was struck by the minister in early spring and so far has succeeded only in defining itself, while future work on the delivery remains only a set of fuzzy goals.
Service delivery must be veteran-centric. In simple terms, this means delivering the services that veterans need, in a painless fashion, with speed and flexibility. This delivery must cover the communications continuum from postal mail to social media, as required by veterans and other clients.
One trial in the area of communicating with VAC clients that was judged a success by veterans was to lengthen service hours on a couple of days per week to accommodate veterans and other clients who had daytime jobs. Sadly, the trial ended without instituting any changes to the national status quo.
Another irritant of long standing is the amount of time required for a veteran to receive a decision on an application for benefits. Four months may seem fast to bureaucrats, but it represents an agonizing wait for someone seeking assistance. This time frame should be further reduced. Using modern decision-making tools and readily according the benefit of the doubt to the applicant should be better brought to bear.
The issue of the delivery of long-term care for modern-day veterans remains a hot topic among the members of the association. While Veterans Affairs has successfully engaged a number of provinces on the issue of priority access for modern-day veterans to obtain community beds, there is no national policy to provide the much-needed holistic national safety net for peacekeeping veterans in their golden years.
At the other end of the service delivery spectrum, decisions on everyday issues for veterans do not seem to follow a predictable standard. I'll use one example of an association member who, going back for his monthly prescription, would sometimes end up receiving it free of charge because of a service-related injury, while on other occasions he would have to pay for it. In each case, he could never get a straight answer from Medavie Blue Cross as to why that was.
The above is only one example of continuing frustrations with wait times for a decision, lack of clear explanations in correspondence, lacklustre telephone conversations, and labyrinthine regulations, policy, and directives. Without question, this service delivery must be improved.
The medium-term solution would involve consolidating direction along the principle of “one veteran” and into transparently accessible clear language, but in the short term, a number of pieces of low-hanging fruit should be implemented without delay.
First, in correspondence, include the name and telephone number of the drafter so that clarifications of the text can be quickly accessed.
Second, ensure that the signatory to the correspondence reviews its content for clarity and the use of plain language.
Third, in telephone conversations, provide escalation to knowledgeable and available supervisory and managerial personnel.
Fourth, ensure that correspondence indicates the availability of both internal review and Veterans Review and Appeal Board appeal options in clear and plain language.
Last, implement longer business hours twice a week at Veterans Affairs offices and call centres across the country.
This is not rocket science. It's really straightforward and simple to do, and it would remove an awful lot of the daily frustrations that veterans wander into.
In closing, I would like to thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you, and for your time and attention.