Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 6th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

Mr. Eyolfson.

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

Thank you.

Thank you, Minister and General.

We were talking about opening the Veterans Affairs offices. I was honoured to be present at the reopening of the one in Brandon, Manitoba. It was quite an exciting event. Could you describe what challenges there have been in reopening these offices?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

When we got the budget passed at the end of June, we had to work with our procurement minister, Judy Foote. To her credit, once that budget money was secure and we gave her the specifications of what we would need and what type of veteran population was in the area, she went about and did her good work and came up with appropriate offices in terms of serving the veterans and their family populations.

Of course, these offices that can do a multitude of things, from intake to basic form-filling, to health and wellness guidance, and to putting veterans in contact with appropriate resources at various levels of different governments. They're really welcomed by our veterans community. We've actually moved with great speed, if you think about the budget passing here just last June, in already getting five of the offices open. I think it's a tremendous credit to Judy and her team and how they've gone about doing things.

We're very excited by the progress. In fact, when I went to the announcement this summer, there was a sense of excitement in Brandon. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there with you when you actually opened it up, but I'm assuming that it was well received from the community.

Did you note any challenges, General? Is everything going fairly smoothly?

[Gen Walter Natynczyk]

I think once we have the location, as the minister indicated, by working with our partners across government to make sure we have the right facility and all of the furniture and that kind of thing, it's just about making sure that we have the right people and the right skill sets. Some of those people, when the offices were closed, went into retirement. We're trying to get the right people with the right skill sets coming in.

I was in the Kelowna office a couple of weeks ago. Again, some of the folks who were there have left, so it's about getting the right people. Then it's about the hand-off of the case-managed files for those veterans who, in the case of Brandon, have been case-managed out of Winnipeg. Then there's that hand-off once we have the right people on the ground in Brandon, so that it is as seamless as it can be for the veteran. At the end of the day, it's about the veteran, and our process is being as veteran-centric as possible.

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

Thank you.

Has it been a challenge to find staff? I think there was some allusion to that earlier. As you say, I know that some of the staff who had been let go had retired.

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

In the main, we have gone about the business of hiring staff on a regular and ongoing basis since last October 19. We've committed to hiring 400. Some areas of the country are easier to staff than others. It is a challenge to find appropriate people in some regions, with the Canadian government having a relatively linear pay scale and with some of the areas of this country having different expectations and different costs associated with housing and the like. But we're finding good people with backgrounds in social work and with the expertise that we need at various levels.

I think it's also important to note that Veterans Affairs is also concentrating on giving veterans an opportunity, where possible, to be hired within our department. We're putting a greater focus on that. I'm very proud of how we lead by example on that to get as many veterans hired.... The former government brought in the veterans priority hiring act in 2014. We haven't yet seen real outcomes on that, but that's why we're trying to drive this as a department and to challenge other departments to really lean in on this to be able to assess where we can give more veterans and people leaving the Canadian Armed Forces a real opportunity to be a part of the public service.

I know that our department is taking this seriously. We had a good meeting on this last week. We've actually brought a person on board to head public service recruitment within our department and then to hopefully expand out, to allow him to leverage his expertise and how he arranges that within our department to look at a whole-of-government approach to finding more success for our men and women who leave the military.

That's also part of the work I'm doing with Minister Sajjan on the transition piece. We're really lining things up so that when a man or woman leaves the military, they're good to go, and so that when they leave the military, they leave with their pension cheque on day one, and they leave with ideas about what they're going to do around work, where they're going to get education, where they're going to find their family doctor, and where they're going to get their illness and injury treated, should that be necessary. It's really about professionalizing the release when men and women leave our military. We do a great job at getting them into the military, from basic training to training them up for ops, and for extended missions, and the like, and we are putting more focus now on professionalizing their release.

That's what a lot of the work has been devoted to over the last eight months, since the end of the last session. Really, I can really say that the work with Minister Sajjan, as well as with General Natynczyk and Chief of the Defence Staff Vance, because of their extraordinary experience, both in the military and understanding that challenge, and now, with General Natynczyk's knowledge of Veterans Affairs.... He has been here for....

Is it four years now?

[Gen Walter Natynczyk]

For two.

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

It's two years now, but with that experience, I think we're at an historic point because of their knowledge and our Prime Minister's vision of seeing that seamless transition.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you, Minister.

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

We're going to have better outcomes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Ms. Wagantall.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister and General, for being here today.

I have a lot of questions, so don't be offended if I cut you off. I have a lot of things that I want an answer for.

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

I will not be offended.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

That's great.

You have a huge mandate here. One item that it appears you have completed is as follows:

Provide injured veterans with 90 percent of their pre-release salary, and index this benefit so that it keeps pace with inflation.

That was a campaign promise as well, and I've watched it move throughout the process to where it's actually in your mandate letter.

What was never included is any information about your changing the level in terms of corporal going to senior private, which has meant minimal increases to those who are on, shall we say, the bottom of the totem pole. Also, there was no mention that it was retroactive, so I appreciate the fact that this has been done; veterans obviously would not say no to that. However, out of the funds that have been provided thus far—and obviously this is a one-time expense—I'm curious to know how much of these funds have gone towards that retroactive payment.

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

We brought in the payment for this program in going from 75% of the soldier's pre-release salary to 90% on a go-forward basis. That was our promise made in the platform, that's what we committed to, and that's what we're doing. When it came to the disability award and moving it from $310,000 to $360,000, we made that payment retroactive to 2005 and the change in the new Veterans Charter.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Okay. Thank you.

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

Where we thought it was fair, it would have been—

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Do you know how much was spent on the retroactive portion?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

On the retroactive portion, I don't have those exact details, and neither would the general, but we can try to get them for you. We just felt that because there was a lot of.... As you're aware, your government wrestled with it, and our government is dealing with it, it's about trying to ease the disparities between the changes from the—

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you very much.

With regard to the offices that have been opened, you mentioned five out of the nine. How many of those five, and which ones, are fully staffed and fully operational?

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Calgary Centre, AB]

I'll turn to you, General.

[Gen Walter Natynczyk]

We have Kelowna open and operational. In every one of the cases... You'll have to ask Michel Doiron, who's going to be following me in just a few moments, and he'll indicate.... I know how many staff I have in each location, but whether we're actually at the upper level right now.... Each one of them is functioning. There are Kelowna and Saskatoon, which we just opened, and Brandon, Sydney, and Corner Brook. Each of them are staffed and functioning. As to whether we are at 100% staffing levels, I don't have that in front of me right now, but they are serving veterans as we speak.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

You're not aware of how many staff are there right now?

[Gen Walter Natynczyk]

I actually know what we have for the numbers in each location that should be there, but I don't have today, to be absolutely accurate with you, how many are there today. If Michel doesn't have it, we can come back to you with a snapshot in time of where we are on those five offices.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Okay. Thank you.

Minister, you've mentioned that whatever the treatment that is needed, VAC is prepared to help our veterans. However, there isn't a recognition of the fact that mefloquine has caused specific issues for veterans, and they are not being treated specifically for them. They're being treated for PTSD, which is a mental health issue, versus a brain stem injury. My concern is that we have all these people available to serve them, yet they are not able to get the specific help they need.

My understanding is that for an individual who has been treated specifically for mefloquine actuallly, the appearance is that it's for PTSD, because otherwise that individual wouldn't get the type of treatment that's needed. Why aren't we focusing on this mefloquine issue and finding out exactly what kind of treatment these veterans need to make sure they get it?