Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 6th, 2016

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister and General, for coming to this committee. We appreciate your being here.

Minister, the budget allocates $6 million that is earmarked for the Invictus Games. Can you tell us what percentage of the Invictus Games budget that might amount to?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

Thanks for the question.

I don't have that exact number. The Invictus Games are primarily being led by, I believe....

Which organization is it?

[Gen Walter Natynczyk]

It's Michael Burns, at True Patriot Love.

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

It's Michael Burns, at True Patriot Love. They've taken the lead on this. They've gone forth and put together a really good start to it. We had a rally around this with Prince Harry in Toronto to celebrate where we're going with this.

I don't have the exact numbers you're looking for, but I do know that it's going to be a great show with a lot of our Canadian Armed Forces members, as well as veterans who have suffered illness or injury as a result of—

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

I agree that it's going to be a great show. I think it's going to be a great opportunity. It's great for our soldiers.

The question, though, is what percentage of the budget that they're going to use is coming from that $6 million? Of that $6 million, how much is the amount. I happened to be at CIMVHR, for the four days of CIMVHR, and I had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Burns. We chatted. I believe there might be another ask coming. Is that ask already factored into this $6 million? If not, where will that money come from?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

We've committed to the Invictus Games. We provided $10 million in funding for that organization. We believe that we've committed greatly to this effort and that it will be an excellent showing.

For further details—

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

So the $6 million will be the total that's going...?

[Gen Walter Natynczyk]

To clarify, the federal government's total contribution to the Invictus is $10 million. The $6 million is the additional amount coming into the department to flow through to Invictus. Totally, and with a contribution from other departments, there will be $10 million going across, keeping in mind that Invictus is also running a partnership with the Province of Ontario, which is making a contribution. I understand the City of Toronto is making a contribution, as well as many charitable organizations, including True Patriot Love.

To give you a snapshot in time in terms of what the federal proportion would be as a whole, we'll have to go back to Invictus and figure that out, sir.

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

Thank you.

How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

You have two minutes.

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

I have another question for you. In the operating expenses, there's an allocation of $773 million. It's broken down into health care, rehabilitation, and re-establishment services. Do you have the figures as to those actual amounts with you? Can you break that down for us?

[Gen Walter Natynczyk]

I don't have them readily at hand, but following us is the chief financial officer in corporate services, retired Rear-Admiral Liz Stuart. I know that she'll have that kind of information.

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

Thank you.

We talked about the commemoration. Again, we're seeing a great deal of commemoration for Vimy, etc. Is the Afghan war memorial factored into this? Has it been pre-planned, or is that a budget that's not budgeted?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

We're committed to the Afghan memorial, full stop. We have worked very hard with stakeholders. Over the course of my time as Minister of Veterans Affairs, we've had three stakeholder summits. We're working very hard with the stakeholders who are part of commemoration. We are also doing outreach to members of the Afghan mission, led by my parliamentary secretary, Karen McCrimmon.

We want to ensure that we get this right and that we do so in a respectful manner that allows us to recognize Canada's longest engagement, in which over 40,000 Canadians took part, with over 150 making the ultimate sacrifice. We're going to get this right so that it's done in a dignified fashion that truly reflects their bravery, courage, and commitment to this nation.

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

Do you have any idea of what that time frame is?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

We're working with the veterans affairs committee, as well as consulting widely. My hope is that it will be sooner rather than later, but I want to get this right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you, Minister.

We're now down to three minutes.

Ms. Mathyssen, the floor is yours.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to pick up on that question from Mr. Kitchen in regard to the Afghan war memorial.

Of course, it's very fitting to honour those who served and those who died. What I'm wondering is, will you be including those who died by suicide as a result of their service? These are the forgotten veterans, but they're still casualties of that particular war. Are there plans to make sure that their sacrifice is remembered too?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

Let's be clear. We honour and respect all those who take part in Canadian military operations, regardless of how their lives come to an end. Let's be clear. Our department finds that one suicide by a veteran is one too many. That's why we are working hard with Minister Sajjan to put together a second-to-none suicide prevention strategy that allows us to move forward to do even better.

We provide a complex array of services for the men and women who leave the Canadian Armed Forces and for those who are in Veterans Affairs. We're continuing to do better on this. It's something that we have to continue to work hard at and to get better at in order to have more people come forward when they have mental health concerns and when they struggle. That's what our department is committed to doing.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

I also would like to continue in the same vein as Ms. Wagantall, only my question is on how you arrived at the decision that three grams of marijuana per veteran a day is efficacious. I'm assuming that doctors are prescribing in terms of the needs of their patients. Did you consult with physicians or psychiatrists? How did you decide that three grams was the right amount?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

We consulted with medical experts, veterans, beneficiaries, licensed producers, and a whole array of individuals. As well, we did a literature review. I'll remind you that cannabis for medical purposes is not a licensed drug at this time.

Since there is a policy vacuum around this.... Again, I was shocked to come into this. Looking into where the department has gone with this, I was surprised that three former ministers had been briefed on this issue, as was the former government, yet we saw no policy rationale behind this. Given where we were, we worked with these communities, with these stakeholders, to put in place a policy that we believe is fair.

I also remind you that the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons has stated that three grams a day is within where they find that in the vast majority of cases of people who use this they should be able to find relief. Given what we saw in the department and given that there was no policy rationale, we had to act in the interests of the wellness of veterans and their families.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you, Minister.

That ends our time for the first session of this meeting. We're going to suspend.

Again, Minister Hehr and General Natynczyk, thank you for taking some time out of your day to answer questions. I notice that the deputy has made some notes to get some information back to us. If you could get that to the clerk, sir, he will distribute it to the committee.

Again, on behalf of the committee, I thank you.

We will suspend for five minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I call the meeting back to order.

I'll give everybody a couple of seconds to get back to their chairs. I believe we have a vote bell ringing, so I'm just going to try to—

[A voice]

Not yet.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

No, not yet, but we will have a vote bell ringing, so when the bells go off, it's not a fire alarm.

Welcome to our second hour. We have the Department of Veterans Affairs in front of us with Ms. Stuart, Assistant Deputy Minister, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Services; Mr. Butler, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Commemoration; and Mr. Doiron, Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery.

Welcome back, everybody. We can start with 10 minutes of presentations, but I spoke to you earlier and I believe you just want to get right into the questions.