Evidence of meeting #68 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 benefit.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9 a.m.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Minister, thank you for joining us today.
Congratulations also on your appointment. I know how important veterans issues are to you personally and how committed you are to making the necessary changes, and I'm so glad that you're here today.
I want to state as well how much of an honour it is for me to work on this committee. I think we have made some really important recommendations already in our work. One of those was a study, as you highlighted, on mental health and suicide prevention. I wonder if you could talk a little more about some of the mental health supports that are in place now, and could perhaps be enhanced by your department, to address some of the challenges we saw in our mental health and suicide prevention study.
9 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
I can't remember how many weeks it was into my tenure that we dived right into suicide prevention. Within academic and international circles, this is seen as a pivotal study, with such pivotal purpose. Not to be glib, I've been fighting for mental health issues since before I knew I was suffering from some of them. It's a deeply personal issue to me.
I am extremely proud of the efforts that have been made by the people of this department to attempt to effectively address the mental health needs of our veterans. On the day I was sworn in, the general here commandeered me and threw me into the back of a car and immediately started briefing me on the work of the department. One of the first things he said to me was that the culture is changing and we had to reinforce that change and that we give our veterans the benefit of the doubt. That is a very fundamental principle: when they call, we give them the benefit of the doubt. Veterans did not always feel that. It does take courage. When they've worked up the courage to acknowledge that they were suffering and sought help, they did not always feel that there was a sympathetic ear on the other end of the line. I think that's fair to say.
I think there's been a demonstrable change. We've heard that from many veterans. It is not perfect. Mental illness is sometimes a very elusive target for the person who's suffering from it in attempting to describe their illness, and to the people who are attempting to address it. Again, the principle of benefit of the doubt comes into play time and again.
I think we acknowledge and seek to help 94% of the people who call and say they're suffering from PTSD. If they can prove they were in a special duty area, that it was in service, then we put them in the program.
Is that fair to say, Walt?
9:05 a.m.
General Retired) Walter Natynczyk (Deputy Minister, Department of Veterans Affairs
Absolutely, Minister. Of all the claims coming in to Veterans Affairs with mental health issues, we are approving 94% of them. In that 6%, those we are declining, in some cases it's folks who have not served in the Canadian Armed Forces, or folks who don't have a diagnosis, so we need to provide the appropriate regular.... But generally, if someone has served in the Canadian Armed Forces and they have a diagnosed mental health injury, we're going to provide support for them. As the minister indicated, one of the toughest parts is getting them in the front door. We have to ensure that the moment they come forward, we provide a helping hand. Again, the federal government does not provide treatment as that's in the jurisdiction of the provinces, but we partner with the provinces coast to coast and with 4,000 mental health professionals and enable them to provide support to our veterans coast to coast.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
Speed here is of the utmost importance. It's important to give the benefit of the doubt, because in the great majority of cases, you're going to effectively get them treatment at exactly the right time. The window is very short. When somebody seeks help and they don't get it and they're left waiting for the system to catch up to them when they've made that leap mentally that they need help, it can cause considerable damage, so you've got to work quickly.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Our committee has heard a lot of testimony about the difficulties a soldier would face when transitioning from DND to Veterans Affairs. Do you see that element as closing the seam that you mentioned in the transition phase and having more integrated services being important to the well-being of those transitioning, and perhaps assisting in their mental health and well-being as well?
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
As a member of Parliament, sitting down with my brother, who was commandant of the naval fleet school in Esquimalt, he would have much preferred just being in charge of the navigation department where he goes out in Zodiacs with students and they look for killer whales and such. He enjoys his job immensely and teaches navigation, but as commandant, suddenly he inherited a lot of human resources work. It came to him pretty clearly, as he said to me, and was repeated not coincidentally by the deputy here when I became minister, that we do an extraordinarily good job in this country at training men and women to become soldiers, but we are not doing as good a job at training our soldiers to become veterans. That's really what we're talking about when we talk about closing the gap.
I'll tell you as well that when I was brought to the Prime Minister's Office and the Prime Minister sat me down to tell me that he was appointing me Minister of Veterans Affairs, that was the first thing he mentioned to me, that we have to close that gap.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you for being here, Minister. I appreciate this opportunity. I have a number of questions.
I want to get back to the question of my colleagues in regard to the lifelong pension. Very clearly, when veterans were assessing the Liberal platform, they heard lifelong pensions, and they made assumptions. My questions have to do with those assumptions.
Is this simply, as we're concerned it will be, a spreading out of the lump sum over a veteran's life, thereby making it less than the traditional lifelong pension? This announcement that we've been waiting for, will it be before the House rises so that MPs can evaluate the plan?
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
I really do not want to get into the details of it, simply because I've not brought it to cabinet yet, but I will say this. I would hope that this government has built up a certain degree of credibility in the past two years in the eyes of our veterans, because quite simply, 40% of our new spending as a government has gone towards veterans. Budget 2016 committed $5.7 billion to restore critical access to services to open up new offices and to provide veterans with compensation, choice, and financial security. That was the point of budget 2016. In 2017, we had another $624 million for mental health to support families and to help with education. Of course, there's our caregiver benefit.
On a small but very symbolic note, too, I would add, the Invictus Games cost $15 million, but that was a very important $15 million for anybody who looked into the eyes of the veterans who not only were there but were spectators—
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you, Minister. I have a number of questions.
I want to ask about a young veteran. I won't use his name, because I don't want to jeopardize him in any way. He is being medically released against his will. You're also Associate Minister of National Defence. This young man was profoundly injured in Afghanistan, and he became the poster boy for DND because of his persistence. He was used for recruiting and to enhance the reputation of the department, and now he's being pushed out against his will. As a result, this will negatively impact some of his benefits and his educational opportunities.
Will you look at this individual's file? He's caught in a terrible catch-22 situation because of rules that don't necessarily make sense. It's not just him; it's all those others who may also be caught.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
I would simply say, how could I not? With his kind permission, and if he was willing to pass along that information, we will look at absolutely any case.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Okay, thank you. I will pursue that.
I have a question about the so-called gold diggers clause. Of course, I think we all regard it as extremely paternalistic, because these are partners who cared for veterans, and whether it was for 15 years or 50 years, there was still a great deal of care, compassion, and love in the relationship. I'm wondering when we will see an end to this particular clause in the act.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
I'll just add that this is something that's been brought up with me in consultations and from hearing from couples directly. It's exactly as you pointed out. These are people who provided that sort of support.
Walt.
9:10 a.m.
Gen Walter Natynczyk
I'll just say that it is a mandated promise. It's a marriage after 60 issue that is in the mandate, and our instructions are to work closely with the Canadian Armed Forces and National Defence, because this is a Canadian Forces superannuation clawback issue. We're working closely with our colleagues at National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces to advance this mandated promise.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you.
Finally, on the caregiver recognition benefit, it's $1,000 per month tax-free, as you indicated, but all of us know what it costs to live in this country. The impact in terms of lost income for an individual can be quite significant and, in the case of that caregiver partner, there's an impact on future pension benefits. They may very well be in a situation in their senior years where their pensions just don't cut it. I'm wondering if you considered that long-term impact. Did you consider that $1,000 per month in this kind of economic climate may not be at all adequate?
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
No, I'll say this. I don't believe its intent was to be all encompassing. One thing that I've discovered in this role is the importance of recognition of what families go through with a veteran in the family and the sacrifices they make. I would agree with you that in its totality, does $1,000 meet all the costs? In many cases it probably would not. Does it go some way? It does.
I think the greatest value in that $1,000 is an acknowledgement, particularly because it goes directly to the caregiver, that we recognize as a country what your family is going through. We recognize the value of what you do every day in the help and care of a veteran. I've realized that recognition is a huge part of this.
November 30th, 2017 / 9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you so much for being here today to answer our questions. I have a few questions.
First of all, I know that part of our budget has gone towards education and employment opportunities for veterans. I was wondering if you could give us some examples of what services will be enhanced in this regard. What will this money be used for specifically?
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
We've been working with the provinces and individual institutions on this.
Walt, do you want to flesh it out?
9:15 a.m.
Gen Walter Natynczyk
Just to say that with budget 2017, as the minister indicated before, the focus is on the well-being of the veteran.
What is really unique about the education and training benefit is that for the first time since World War II, we have a benefit that is available to all veterans leaving the Canadian Armed Forces who have served at least six years and 12 years—these two gates—to re-establish them and assist them in re-establishing into Canadian society. In the U.S. they would call this the GI bill.
It's the first time since World War II that we have this kind of flexibility to provide education and training for veterans, many of whom kind of joined the military because they didn't like school. Later in their life they don't have the skills, especially if they had been in, say, the infantry, the armoured artillery, and some of the other trades, that are easily transferable into civil society. What's terrific about the education and training benefit is if someone reaches six years of service—because we want them to fulfill their obligation to the country—they could have access to $40,000 for education, books, tuition, and living expenses. If someone has served 12 years of service, they could get up to $80,000 for four years of education, college, university, trade school, again, for tuition, books, and living expenses. If they wanted to do something of a hobby nature, you know, entrepreneurship or those kinds of things, they could get up to $5,000. This is extraordinary, to be able to have a package like this that we can link on to the other part in the budget, which is career transition. It takes these individuals with new skills and then lands them into a purpose, a meaningful purpose, that may also give them financial security in the long run.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Seamus O'Regan Liberal St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL
I was just going to briefly add—I mean this is something that really struck me coming into the role—that this is not a token amount. This is a substantial amount of money that will take up a substantial amount of the educational costs for those who want to pursue it.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you very much.
Since you brought it up, I was wondering how the career transition services have changed since 2015.
