Evidence of meeting #26 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 rcmp.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
All right.
I guess my concern, Mr. Chair, quickly, is that there could be a lot of duplication with respect to their report and what you're currently doing. I would just caution you on that.
That's it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
4:35 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
I want to pursue something with respect to the care you provide. You referred to Homewood. We heard from veterans, and some of the witnesses who came here were providers of private sector care for post-traumatic stress.
I wondered how a veteran could manage that, if it was something that wasn't provided by VAC. Now, you said that Homewood was all paid for. Can you tell us about that?
October 20th, 2016 / 4:35 p.m.
D/Commr Daniel Dubeau
I'm sorry. I touched on it too quickly. As a point of clarification, when I talk about Homewood, I'm talking about when it's serving the member. Within our own organization, when it's an occupational injury, we have access to.... I know there's Homewood. We have used it. We have used various other service providers. They're private or publicly funded. We have sent our members to those facilities.
We do it through contracting. We go into contracts with them to get the service. What's provided to our veterans through Veterans Affairs is solely managed through Veterans Affairs. When I spoke about Homewood, it was really for serving members who may need that type of assistance. If it's determined that it's because of an occupational injury, we need to ensure that we get them the help. At that point our health services officer would say, that's a possible facility they could use.
I used that one because I know it, because I meet with them, and we have in the past used their centre or facilities to get the members the help they need to get them back in operation.
4:35 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Once they're a veteran, then, it's services through VAC, as if they were a CF member.
The other thing that struck me was that in the brief you said that in the process of reaching out to members, you maintain a member's connection to the workplace. We heard from some veterans that this was an issue, that they felt detached from the workplace, and for some it was a very painful thing to either be isolated from the workplace or to be compelled to go back into it.
I wondered how important that is, in terms of your process, that the member be connected to the workplace.
4:35 p.m.
D/Commr Daniel Dubeau
I believe it's critical. I'll be honest with you that we have not been good in the past at keeping that connection. That's why we're now investing in a fulsome disciplined and managed program, to ensure that this is happening.
In the last three or four years, we've been telling our supervisors that this is their responsibility. In the past, it was part of our responsibility as officers, or of one of the nurse practitioners or nurses that we had on staff. We're telling members, “That's your person. That's your employee. You have to keep that contact, that connection to the workplace.”
It's critical. It's something that we probably have, for lack of a better term, failed at in the past. We're trying to rectify this as we go forward.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis
Okay. Thank you.
That ends this round of witnesses. We'll give you a couple of minutes to wrap up, if you'd like to do a quick summary to the committee, and we'll then suspend for a few minutes and go in camera.
4:35 p.m.
D/Commr Daniel Dubeau
Mr. Chair, I just want to thank you all for your interest in this. We know we have to support, and it's something that's very important to us as we go forward. We are an organization trying to transform our culture. This is something that, as we go forward, we know we have to get better at.
We don't have it perfect. Trust me, we don't have it perfect. There's currently an OAG audit looking into our mental health services. We're looking forward to learning from that and improving. It's always to try to improve and get better at what we provide to our members.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, for inviting us.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis
Great.
On behalf of the committee today I'd like to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to appear before us.
With that, we'll pause for a few minutes and then we'll come back to go in camera.
Thank you.
[Proceedings continue in camera]