Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 30th, 2017

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

Could I interrupt?

Unless Veterans Affairs recognizes it as a condition related to service, there's nowhere to go with that. The question is, is that being done within Veterans Affairs?

[Michel Doiron]

It's not the use of mefloquine that we recognize, it's the mental health situation. Whether it was mefloquine that caused the mental health problem, if you come to us with a diagnosis, whether you've used mefloquine or used any other drugs or anything else but you have a diagnosis, it will be based on your mental health diagnosis.

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

If a doctor indicates that an individual has a brain stem injury due to the use of mefloquine, they can then receive funding for treatment.

[Michel Doiron]

Absolutely, as long as it's linked to service. It's not because of mefloquine. It's because the brain stem injury is linked to service.

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

I understand that, but at the same time, obviously there's a causal effect here.

[Michel Doiron]

I'm not debating at all the causal effect. I just want to be clear. For us, the question is, what is your diagnosis and is it linked to service? It might sound like a small point and I'm not trying to be picky at all on this. I know the issue surrounding mefloquine, and I think my chief medical officer has been before you to talk about it. The reality for us is that if you have a mental health issue, whatever it may be, we want to treat you; we want to help you get better. It's not what caused it.

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

I understand. Really, we're splitting hairs somewhat here, because the reality is that it's not actually a mental health issue; it's a brain stem injury, a physical injury.

[Michel Doiron]

Okay, so it's brain stem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

You're at three minutes.

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

Thank you.

Will I get that information from you, then, in regard to what percentage of that funding is for mental health?

[Michel Doiron]

Yes.

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

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Mr. Brassard.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some rapid-fire questions.

With respect to the veterans transition program, I travelled across the country over the summer, and as of late August or early September, military family resource centres said that they weren't prepared to implement the veterans transition program as of the April 1 start date.

Quickly, what's the status of that? Has the funding been allocated to the MFRCs? Are they prepared, at this point, to put the veterans transition program into effect?

[Michel Doiron]

I'm not aware that they're not ready to implement the CTS. However, for the CTS, we went out for a contract and the period is closed. We've assessed the contracts and we should be ready to do an announcement of who will be providing CTS for us on April 1.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

To be fair, Michel, the challenge that the MFRCs were talking about was the fact that there had been no funding allocated, there had been no communication with VAC, and there had been no staffing implementation, which they're going to require in this case. I think you need to circle back with your MFRCs to understand whether they're prepared for this April 1 timeline and this April 1 launch. That's number one.

Second, Invictus—

[RAdm Elizabeth Stuart]

Can I address the funding issue?

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

I don't have time for that. I think you need to circle back with them. Okay?

[Michel Doiron]

Yes, got it.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

The second thing is about Invictus. Millions of dollars are being put into the supplementary estimates for Invictus. Is this to cover a shortfall in the original funding? Why is this money being put in there?

[Michel Doiron]

The additional funds that were requested and received for Invictus weren't for shortfalls, actually. Based on the numbers I have seen lately, Invictus was actually quite successful. This was to add, I'll call it programming, to the whole event of that week. There was a matching amount, so all of that $7.5 million had to be matched by other parties for the Invictus Games.

[RAdm Elizabeth Stuart]

It flowed through Veterans Affairs. I would add that at the Invictus Games we held a first-of-a-kind job fair for veterans and we on-boarded upwards of 200 veterans. It was very successful.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Okay.

The last question is on attribution to service with respect to injury. The concern for the DND ombudsman is that we're still not attributing service within the DND to VAC. There's a disconnection there. What's the status of attribution to service in terms of VAC's identification for medical disability?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

You'll have to make that answer very short, please.

[Michel Doiron]

We're talking to the surgeon general. They don't attribute the injury to service. They give a diagnosis and then we do the assessment. We've talked about the ombudsman, but to really do justice to this, I would need a lot more time.