Evidence of meeting #46 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 we've.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

General  Retired) Walter Natynczyk (Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
Michel Doiron  Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs
Rear-Admiral  Retired) Elizabeth Stuart (Assistant Deputy Minister, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Services, Department of Veterans Affairs
Bernard Butler  Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Commemoration, Department of Veterans Affairs

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON

To go to my question, when General Natynczyk was here back in December, he mentioned the hiring of short-term employees because of the increase in the file workload. We're starting to see that through these supplementary estimates. What number of short-term employees has VAC hired? How many are actually working on caseloads? Do you have that information in front of you?

4:50 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

I'll provide you with that information.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON

Okay.

4:50 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

I don't have that. You mean terms and casuals? I do have a breakdown, but I don't have it here. I'll provide that.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON

Okay.

I'm going to cede my time to Ms. Wagantall.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK

Thank you so much.

I'd like to talk about Saskatoon again just a bit. I understand that 400 new positions have been created; 381 have been filled, and 113 of those are case managers. That means there are 19 positions left to hit 400. In Saskatchewan, the indication is that there's a potential caseload of 2,900 veterans, and to date we have one case manager. We would need 115 more.

My question is, since a significant number of those 400 were in the queue already under the previous minister, is this government prepared to continue to hire past that 400 to make sure that the 25:1—

4:50 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

Mr. Chair, I think I'm going to correct something in that. Yes, there are 2,900 veterans, but the 25:1 is for case management.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK

Okay, so it's the harder and more difficult....

4:50 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

It's the harder cases. Also, in Saskatoon, presently we have five case-managed veterans.

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK

Okay.

4:55 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

That's why there are not 100 case managers in Saskatoon. It's the same thing for every office. We can pick the number. The other veterans are handled by our veterans service agents, who carry a much bigger load because it's not the same service.

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK

Yes.

4:55 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

Somebody may be on VIP and get a call once a year. That's the veterans independence program.

Let's say there's an issue—

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK

Okay, that makes sense.

How many of those are situated in Saskatoon?

4:55 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

We have one case manager. We're ready. If there's a demand, we will increase that. We have six employees, total, in Saskatoon.

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK

Thank you.

4:55 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

Also, I think we're fully staffed at the moment in Saskatoon.

4:55 p.m.

Conservative

Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK

Thank you. That's my question.

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis

Okay. Mr. Graham is next.

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

Thank you.

I have a variety of questions. I'm fairly new to this committee. Minister Hehr talked about 381 new hires, and Mr. Brassard broached this a little bit. Do we know how many of those are veterans, and do we have a breakdown of their rank at retirement? I'm curious to know if we have a lot of enlisted personnel, or if it's mainly admirals and generals who are getting these jobs.

4:55 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

I don't have the number of the 381 who are veterans. We can get that. We have the total number of veterans in Veterans Affairs. When it comes to rank, though, we hire them at all levels. We have senior officers, like the rear admiral or the general here. We also have a lot of corporals, sergeants, and junior and senior NCOs with various skill sets. They're all over the organization.

As an example, in my adjudication unit I have a fair number of corporals and sergeants who do adjudications. They were nurses or medics in the armed forces, and often they are officers, but they're not all officers. We hire nurses or medics if they have the qualification.

I can try to get you the number of the people we've hired, because I don't have the breakdown of the 381.

4:55 p.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

As to the 381, I'm curious if there's a bias towards certain skill sets and ranks or if it really does cover everybody.

4:55 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs

Michel Doiron

We do have the number of total hires. Do you want to...?

4:55 p.m.

Rear-Admiral Retired) Elizabeth Stuart (Assistant Deputy Minister, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Services, Department of Veterans Affairs

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As a follow-on to the statement made earlier by the deputy minister regarding the veterans in the public service hiring unit, we've stood up a team in late November and early December. It's very small at the moment, but we have a phased approach to improve the hiring of veterans in the public service. The phased approach looks to Veterans Affairs Canada being a role model, first and foremost. Obviously DND is very experienced, because the Canadian Armed Forces and National Defence work in an integrated fashion.

We are seeking in the next phase to have a positive effect on hiring throughout the entire public service and then to branch out into industry. Also, we know there are a lot of not-for-profits and organizations that are already assisting in this manner.

Since the coming into force of Bill C-27, the Veterans Hiring Act, we have seen some take-up by priority veterans who have been medically released, either for reasons attributable to service or reasons not attributable to service. The Public Service Commission has a mandate to collect data on those veterans, but to date there is no mandatory reporting of hires in the public service who are veterans. For example, at Veterans Affairs Canada we have sent every new employee a voluntary survey. It's still not mandatory to self-identify as a veteran, and I would imagine that some veterans may not wish to do so, but it has improved our reporting.

I can give you some statistics. From the coming into force of the Veterans Hiring Act on July 1, 2015, we had 315 priority hires in the public service, 18 of them within Veterans Affairs Canada. The total of veterans employed at VAC who have self-identified through our survey currently is 115.

We are working with the Public Service Commission to try to improve our ability to collect data on veterans, and we have sent a letter asking to have a question regarding military service added to the public service employee survey.

We're working on several venues, and we haven't finished our work by any means as yet.

5 p.m.

Liberal

David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC

I got into this committee right in the middle of our study on veterans' suicides. That's all we've discussed until today, so I've learned quite a lot in a very short period of time.

One of the threads that I've seen is a loss of confidence in Veterans Affairs by veterans over the past decade. I'll call it that. We've seen a lot of damage caused by huge cuts by the previous government. What we're finding is that the veterans don't care about the parties; it's that they don't have confidence in the service anymore. It's not just about money.

How do we more broadly rebuild that confidence with the veterans? What steps do we need to take, and what's the path to get there?