Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 8th, 2016

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

I will freely admit to being technologically idiotic. I wondered how the tutorial was developed to ensure that it was good technology and user-friendly.

[Dr. Cyd Courchesne]

This is the online caregiver. It was developed by Queen's University, the Royal Ottawa Hospital, and the Military Family Resource Centre. It was tested with actual caregivers who said this is what they needed. This is good. They went through all that process.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

Mr. Bratina.

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

That was toward what I wanted to ask you about, the online resources.

When I was mayor, if I wanted to find out something about the city, I would Google it, because I couldn't figure out the city's website. Generally speaking, it's not only with the online resources but with everything you do, and I was encouraged by the remarks you just made.

We're reviewing the programs and processes. What about your internal review? Tell me about that.

[Michel Doiron]

We're finalizing one that we're going to start implementing probably in January or February. It's the service delivery review, which is looking at the journey of a veteran in our process. We've done journey mapping, and some of that stuff, to see.... They've looked at 400 veterans, actual cases, and mapped what happened.

It's not always nice in the sense that the service was done, but there are a lot of touchpoints, a lot of letters sent, and a lot of medical exams needed. We're going to be looking to eliminate some of this, to make it simpler. That's the service delivery review. We're also looking at stuff to make our forms easier. It's very practical stuff.

The other review that the associate deputy minister is going to embark on in the very near future is what we're calling a functional review. I think the meeting was called for tomorrow but it may be next week now. As I mentioned earlier, we're noticing the policies. Often there are departmental policies that are not law or regulations, so it's about how we can remove these layers of policies that have morphed.

Veterans Affairs is a very old department. The deputy minister likes to call our legislation and our policies a quilt. I think that's a very good picture of our stuff. Governments add programs or change things, but there are all these rules and regulations that we have to follow. How can we remove the internal policies that have been put in place over time that are not in law and are not in regulations and simplify that?

There are 741 internal regulations and policies, and I stand to be corrected on the exact number. They're not legal. We're going to be embarking on figuring out which ones don't make sense and eliminating them to try to save time, process, and documentation, and advance this. This is ongoing.

We are serious about trying to simplify this. In my mind, I keep thinking about TurboTax, and it may be a plug for a company here. I use TurboTax to do my income tax. I would love to have TurboVAC. I'm very serious about it, because you can go on the web, assuming you're web literate, and if you're not, we'll take care of you, but it won't ask you to fill out 25 forms. It'll ask if you served, yes or no, and you can put out some stuff and our system would populate it.

We are not there, but I had a veteran talk to me the other day who said it was the first time he had a VAC form sent to him that was completed. We put all the information on the form, and he just had to confirm and send it back to us. We're going down that road.

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

You were a paramedic?

[Michel Doiron]

Yes, years ago.

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

The people we're talking about are in crisis. It's not as if they're asking when they can get their car fixed. In your case, in your previous work, if the phone rang or a light went off, three minutes later you're on the way.

I also like TurboVAC.

We need all the Veterans Affairs staff to remain relevant to the needs of veterans. I know that the head of the Canadian Pacific Railway moved all its people away from the downtown Calgary office to a railway yard and told them to look out the window, because that's what they do.

I'm wondering how you achieve that human, personal touch that you talked about.

[Michel Doiron]

First of all, we've hired over 300 new individuals based on budget 2015 and 2016. All these individuals are going through an intensive training program, which is all about care, compassion, and respect. They are going out into the offices across the country with the new philosophies. Come April 1, we're going to bring in our more experienced people and put them through, not quite the same training because they have the expertise, but to make sure they know the new concepts.

For the service delivery branch, for my branch, my directors general and my executives are all tasked to get out to a field office on a very regular basis. Our head office is in Charlottetown, as opposed to other departments, but if you're always in the ivory tower and you never make it to the front line, or to the train yard, you don't really know what's happening on that front line.

It caught me by surprise when a person in a certain position said he went with a deputy to an office, and it was the first time in x number of years he'd been to a field office. I was thinking to myself, how do you know what's going on?

I feel it every day.... I field the complaints—not just feel, but field—but it's important that everybody does. Our deputy—you've met him, he was here Tuesday—and the associate deputy minister go to offices, and the deputy probably hits an office every couple of weeks, a bit less now because of his operation. When he comes back, he goes to the senior management table and tells them what he heard and saw.

It's being brought into the entire organization, because care, compassion, and respect has to be believed and lived at all levels of the organization. The staff are living it. I live it every day. The doctor here lives it every day, but we have to ensure the entire department understands it.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

That ends our time for today, so I'll give you a couple of minutes if you'd like to wrap up, and we'll go from there.

[Michel Doiron]

The only wrap-up I would have is that I do seriously look forward to your report on service. I know you've been meeting with a lot of individuals. I read a lot of the transcripts. I hope there are areas in that, that will help us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Our intention is to table the report tomorrow, so you'll have some reading for the weekend.

[Michel Doiron]

I spend a lot of time reading.

Thank you to the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you very much.

On behalf of the committee, I'd like to thank both of you again for testifying in front of the committee today, and thank you for all you do for the men and women who have served us.

With that, I'll suspend for about four minutes and we'll come back in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]