Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 1st, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I call this meeting to order.

This is the first meeting of our study on the barriers to transition and measurable outcomes of the successful transition of veterans.

According to the latest studies, about one-third of veterans have experienced difficulties in transitioning to civilian life. Of these veterans who experienced difficulties, about two-thirds were released for medical reasons, and one-third were released for other reasons, such as end of contract, retirement, etc. The committee is studying the stages that mark this transition period in order to identify the elements that, along this continuum, can be obstacles to veterans' smooth transition to civilian life.

Today we have two panels. We'll do the same format, with five minutes, and then we'll go to rounds of questioning.

Mr. McColeman has a question.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Mr. Chair, thank you for recognizing me before we begin proceedings today.

I'd like to request that the committee be televised for two of the scheduled meetings. I want to give notice to you, Chair, that I'd like to request that the Tuesday, February 13 and Tuesday, February 27 meetings be televised.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Okay, I'll make a note of that.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

What is the process, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

The process is that I believe we have only two or three rooms. I know from the last time that there is a list, so where we lie with that depends on other committees and the availability of the room.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Okay, so if there is availability, we will have them televised?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Well, that said, it also is contingent on other meetings they might find, and I don't judge the meetings of importance to be televised. I know that the last time when we put in a request, there were other ones, and I'm not sure just what those rules are.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

I understand that, okay. But if the rooms are available, the meetings will be televised?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Yes—

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

—barring everybody voting against me.

We'll start with the meeting.

Thank you, everybody, for patiently waiting.

On our first panel today I would like to welcome Barry Westholm. I would like to thank Barry, because I believe this is his third appearance at the committee.

Welcome.

Also, I'd like to welcome the Royal Canadian Legion. We have here Brad White, national executive director, Dominion Command; and also Ray McInnis, director of veterans services.

Welcome to you both.

We have, waiting patiently by teleconference from the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research, David Pedlar, scientific director; and Heidi Cramm, who is on the scientific leadership team.

We'll start with the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research, and David and Heidi, who have been waiting patiently.

Welcome.

[Dr. David Pedlar, Scientific Director, Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research]

Thank you very much.

Good morning, everyone. I'm David Pedlar, scientific director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research. I am here with my colleague, Dr. Heidi Cramm, who is also amongst Canada's leaders in research around military and veterans' families.

For those of you who aren't familiar with us, we're called CIMVHR as well. We exist to enhance the lives of Canadian military personnel, veterans, and their families by harnessing the national capacity for research. Since 2010, CIMVHR has developed a research network of over 1,500 researchers from 43 Canadian member universities and eight global affiliates, who have agreed to work together with us in addressing the health research requirements of our military personnel, veterans, and their families.

The institute works in close relationship with and has garnered continuous support from practitioners, government, and industry representatives, as well as philanthropists and other groups of caring Canadians that strengthen our foundation. I should also mention that I spent over 15 years as research director at Veterans Affairs Canada. During my years as research director, one of my areas of focus was the transition from military service to civilian life. On that topic, I want to make three brief points that I want to highlight as we start our work today.

First, having worked closely with military personnel and veterans for many years face to face, I think the culture shift is a key concept that we have to take into consideration. We all go through major life transitions—through adulthood, in health, and with losses in our lives—but in the military life-course what is unique is the shift from the civilian to military culture at entry, and then from military to post-military life at release. This shift from military to post-military identity is a challenge for most, but can be profoundly disorienting for some, especially when their release is unplanned or undesired.

The second point I want to make is that there is no internationally accepted construct for defining what successful transition is to life after military service, so I think we need one. I would recommend that the committee consider that. We need to think about what are the priorities or the areas of effort that we need to focus on, and they need to be defined. I was engaged in that work and this task for over five years at Veterans Affairs Canada, but also outside Veterans Affairs.

I like a seven-domain framework that defines the domains as employment and purpose of activity in life; health, with a number of dimensions; finances; housing; social integration; life skills preparedness; and, the social environment that veterans release into. If we don't have a framework, we don't have a comprehensive approach to understanding transition. You have to define a framework in order to identify what areas you want to measure. For me, this is a critical piece that needs to be put in place for a full discussion around what successful transition means.

The final point I want to underline is that veterans' families also have to be part of this focus in terms of how we define transition and success.

Those are my opening remarks. Heidi and I look forward to questions from the committee today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you very much.

Next we have Mr. Westholm.

Thank you, Barry.

[Barry Westholm, As an Individual]

Thank you very much for having me here again today.

Barriers to transition and measurable outcomes of successful transition is a complex subject, so prior to my coming here I submitted a detailed briefing note, which I hope you all have, and annexes to allow you to cover my commentary in detail. You can get back to me any time on any points I may have raised that pique your interest.

Similar concerns on this subject, and solutions to them, have been discussed and tabled since at least 2009. But in listening to past witnesses before this committee, I feel that a review of post-release oversight is required, as it is key to our subject matter.

In 2009 and again in 2012 Auditor General reports recommended the following:

ill and injured members will be tracked by the Canadian Forces until an individual returns to unrestricted duty; a former Canadian Forces member (including reservists) is able to resume or seek employment; a member is able to cope independently without any further assistance; or a member expresses that he or she no longer wishes any further contact.

....In partnership with Veterans Affairs Canada, the Canadian Forces and National Defence will, also by June 2013, examine options to improve systematic post-release follow-up.

These are hugely important as somebody leaves the military for civilian life.

The above two recommendations were agreed to and provide this committee potential access to two sources of information toward answering questions of today's topic.

The first source of information should be 10 years' of records collected by the Canadian Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada in monitoring military personnel during transition and after release. This record would include barriers and solutions to them, as injured soldiers and their families went from Canadian Forces support to Veterans Affairs support and then went on with their lives.

However, the findings of that collection of data will have to be tempered by the fact that the means to a successful transition, the joint personnel support unit, remains under constant reconstruction and has been mismanaged the entire time.

The second source of information would be if this data were inadequate, or didn't exist at all, because the Canadian Forces and VAC are not fulfilling their prior agreements in monitoring their troops during transition and post-release. If this is the case, then you've found, in that absence of data, a component answering today's topic.

Post-release oversight for transitioning members is crucial to ensuring that whatever the barriers the transitioning member might encounter, they are identified, addressed, and catalogued for use in the future. The Canadian Forces calls these “lessons learned”.

However, what level of priority does the Canadian Forces place on soldier transition?

I have some experience in this area, as my former position in JPSU included transition and post-release oversight. Neither could be accomplished properly, given the low priority and poor management of the JPSU. Underscoring this point are the comments of Lieutenant-Colonel Cecyre, joint personnel unit deputy commanding officer, in his email from 2014 as follows:

The demand for JPSU Services is increasing exponentially (18.5% increase in the last year);

The bulk of our customer base consists of extraordinary challenging files to manage; and

This results in the JPSU staff being severely overworked at all levels (senior staff on duty 24/7).

The mitigation strategy was due to the criticality of the JPSU, which required that the VCDS priority be raised from 6 to 2 the soonest.

I just want to explain really generically what these VCDS priority levels are. Priority 1 is deployed on operations, so you're in battle. If you need something, you get it right away. Going down one is priority 2. It could be a joint operations command in Canada, where they're watching the battle. They're number 2. It keeps going down to priority 6, such as the battalion ping-pong team, for example. That's at the bottom.

From 2008 to 2014 the JPSU was given the Canadian Forces' lowest priority level, level 6. That the Canadian Forces gave the lowest priority to injured soldier transition may explain why we're having this discussion today and why there's been so much trauma inflicted upon transitioning soldiers, military families, and new veterans.

Therefore, a major barrier to addressing barriers to transition and measurable outcomes of successful transition is the Canadian Armed Forces' approach to soldier transition, which is, of itself, a barrier to transition.

The first step to a successful transition is an efficiently functioning JPSU, a unit that has been stuck on its own starting line now for nine full years. Until that's in place, measuring anything to do with soldier transition, it is really a waste of resources, because we haven't even started the game yet. However, once it's in place, the answer to barriers and measurable outcomes will be easy to assess, as veterans work toward things that we all strive to have in our lives—the care of our families, a good quality of life, and a good standard of living. This is something that we all want and that our veterans would want, as well.

That's the end of my statement. I look forward to any questions you might have later on.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you, Mr. Westholm.

Now we will turn to the Royal Canadian Legion.

Mr. White and Mr. McInnis, the floor is yours.

[Brad White, National Executive Director, Dominion Command, Royal Canadian Legion]

Chair, and members of the standing committee, thank you for inviting the Royal Canadian Legion today to discuss the stages that mark the transition period and possible obstacles that would mar a smooth transition from a life of service.

In 2015, when the Legion first appeared to speak on the continuum of transition services, we talked about a seamless transition and today, we now talk about a smooth transition. I would hope that these are one and the same, in that anyone who transitions from a life of service needs the confidence and support required to make that transition, regardless of the circumstances of why that transition is occurring.

Appearing on behalf of our president, David Flannigan, I am Brad White, the national executive director of the Legion, and Ray McInnis is with me today. He is the director of our veterans’ services at national headquarters.

Today, our presentation will be in English, but we can answer questions in French, if needed.

We believe that a life of service in Canada’s military has three definable stages, the first being the introduction or indoctrination to service life, the second the immersion into and working within that life, and the final stage defined as the departure from that lifestyle. Within each stage many influences help to form the mindset and the lifestyle of the military person.

Entering into a life of service in the Canadian Forces is a process of indoctrination. Regardless of previous life experiences, backgrounds, values, culture, or heritage, the indoctrination process aims at taking that person as an individual and forming that individual into a member of a team, someone who understands authority, is mission oriented, and team motivated. The result is a basic soldier, sailor, or air person ready for further training in their chosen career with the military. I liken recruits to raw material. They are moulded and ready to be moulded into a finished product. They are taught to rely on the system to provide for them, they are told what to wear, when to eat, and where to be. In particular, they are taught to react to direction and to support their teammates. They are no longer individuals but members of a distinctive group.

Following recruit training, people join that distinctive group and undergo further career and/or trades training. Here they perfect their skills and commence the process of immersion into their new surrounding or home. As they progress, so do their professional skills and advancement in their chosen career field. They transform from basic recruits to skilled craftsmen to leaders in their field. They experience all kinds of professional development from training through to and including real operational deployments. They become part of the military culture and they seek acceptance within that culture and feel very secure being surrounded by it.

Also during this period other life-altering changes usually occur as people take on greater responsibilities like marriage and family. As these changes occur, they tend to make the Canadian Forces person more reliant on the system as a means of financial support and family security. They are now fully committed and engaged in the military culture.

At some point, life in the Canadian Forces draws to a close. This is not always dependent upon time but also on life-altering circumstances, such as injury or illness. In some cases, a person may choose to leave the military voluntarily during their service or on reaching compulsory retirement age. In other cases that choice is made on their behalf, and as stated, approximately two-thirds are released for medical reasons.

Throughout this life course, individuals are indoctrinated into a regimented system with a belief that this very system will look after them all the way through. They accept the military culture of teamwork and rely on that team for support. So for some, departing that lifestyle becomes an extremely difficult process, and many never leave the military, even though they no longer serve. Why is that so?

[Ray McInnis, Director, Veterans Services, Royal Canadian Legion]

There are many reasons why a smooth, seamless transition from military life can be impeded, and each individual undergoing transition has particular and unique challenges. A cookie-cutter approach is not applicable.

Throughout the different stages of a military career people transform from individuality to collectivity. They identify with the group and the system provides for them. They become reliant on the support and are secure and confident within it.

Military life provides a secure and stable financial environment, even when operational deployments are dangerous. Service personnel and their families grow with the military culture and have relatively comfortable lives.

When people enter into the military and the culture of collectivity, they begin a socialization process that creates many bonds and friendships that last a lifetime. It's another form of dependence, but as Farley Mowat noted in his book The Regiment, when push comes to shove, people fight for the person beside them. Indeed, these bonds will take them through tough and dangerous times and are long-lasting.

From mental health to severe disability, the nature of issues today also complicates the transition process. With issues of mental health, these are often unseen disabilities and full acceptance of the problem and programs designed to benefit those suffering have yet to be obtained or developed. Stigma is a major factor, although great strides have been made to overcome it. Physical disability is more prevalent now than it has been in previous conflicts. Multiple disabilities combine to create very complicated cases, often involving not only physical but mental health issues, with long-term treatments required even before someone can achieve their new normal. It is at this stage that the military is actively considering terminating future employment.

[Brad White]

What is to be done? Regardless of the stage of service, it is important that all personnel understand the consequences of that service and have confidence in the system. That starts here, with the support of government, which makes the ultimate decision to place Canadian men and women in harm's way.

Personnel have to understand that the system they have been indoctrinated into will look after them and their families. In normal, non-injury, transitional situations, I have still seen people having difficulty leaving the sanctuary of military life. Everything was provided for them and now they are left to deal with a foreign world in arranging health care and other services that were once provided by the military. For those who are transitioning with more complex issues, extra care is needed. Knowledge and communication are paramount throughout the military career, so that those who need assistance know how to avail themselves of it.

Right now, that's not happening. Even for those who leave the service, with no apparent issues, they need to understand that support is there when and if needed. The Canadian Forces has stated that it will revamp the complete transitional process and ensure that only those who are fit to be transitioned are. Close coordination between the Departments of National Defence and Veterans Affairs is extremely essential to ensure that not one person falls through those cracks and that continuous support is provided throughout.

The ultimate aim in all of this is that a service person and their family will be able to reintegrate back into life outside of the military.

Chairman, thank you. That's our statement. We're prepared to answer questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you. We'll start our first round of questioning.

Mr. McColeman, you have six minutes.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Westholm, you sent an email to the committee members—and excuse the fact that one arm has broken off my glasses here—

[Barry Westholm]

I didn't notice a thing.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

—it happened this morning.

I'd like to read it as my preamble to my question.

[Barry Westholm]

Certainly.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

It reads:

Good Afternoon. A year ago this month, Pte (ret'd) Leah Greene made her final desperate trip from Nova Scotia to Ontario seeking medical assistance not found in her home Province. As always, Leah hit Ontario like a hurricane and demanded her voice be heard, and that her injuries be addressed just as they impacted her life: critically, totally, completely. The medical services in Ontario heard Leah, helped her while she was here and arranged for continuing support for her in Nova Scotia. Once back in Nova Scotia, Leah revelled in this new support, but only for a short time; within a month or so she lost or was obstructed from that support and began the descent to her untimely death on July 26, 2017. Since her passing, Leah's sister (Jessie), on behalf of the Greene family, has asked why and how this could have happened, but her questions have been met with silence, not unlike the situation that faced the Desmond family for so long. I have been asked to appear before the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs on Feb 1, 2017. Leah's sister, Ms. Jessie Greene, will be in attendance in hopes of speaking about the situation her family has been through and the questions that remain. I hope that Honourable members of Parliament and representatives from the CAF/VAC can make some time to discuss Jessie's concerns with her.

Notwithstanding the fact that I personally am going to be meeting with Jessie, and I know other members of the committee will be personally meeting with Jessie, is there anything in this public forum hearing that you would like to add to your email?

[Barry Westholm]

Veterans Affairs Canada has to be a lot more proactive and hands on when it comes to complicated cases that have a degree of urgency to them.

The case facing Leah was about as complex and urgent as it got, and I had a teleconference with Veterans Affairs Canada to explain this whole thing in detail about what had to be done after Leah lost her medical support in Nova Scotia, indicating that they had to get things in gear, high gear, very quickly. It turned into a “fill out a form” thing, and I said, “I'll fill out all the forms you want, but somebody has to get there to take care of Leah.”

I asked them, “Can you at least phone the doctor, the medical support, to say, 'Veterans Affairs Canada is on the phone. We have an injured veteran who's in crisis. We were hoping that you could take her back under your wing'?”

No, they wouldn't do that.

A month went by when Leah was very much alive. Veterans Affairs was very much aware of what was going on, and then Leah passed away at 40 years old. There was no need. They only contacted the family after she had died.

We talk about lessons learned and barriers. This is why we have to look at these things and examine them. We don't pull back. Something very bad happened there. We have to learn from it. We lost a soldier. We lost a veteran.

Jessie's questions should be answered and an investigation should be made of that situation.