Evidence of meeting #75 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 families.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Is the information given to the spouse?
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Is it guaranteed that it's given to the spouse and not given to the soldier to give to the spouse?
Cmdre Sean Cantelon
Leaving Canada is the one case in which I can say the spouses get the brief upon departing the country and get the services that are there. They're also met on location, either remotely by our staff, through video, or by telephone, and are provided with a rundown of all those services.
It's a little more challenging inside Canada. We do our best to contact spouses, family members, parents, and all of that.
Liberal
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you for being with us today. We all know how important a role the family plays in the transition of members into civilian life, so thank you for your input today.
A witness who came last week mentioned that he had a certain time frame within which he could apply for transition services and that if a certain amount of time had gone past, he wouldn't be able to apply anymore.
Obviously not all veterans are ready to apply for these services upon retirement, and so I was wondering why this is currently the case. If family members are allowed to...not really apply for the veterans, but if they have any input and if they can strongly suggest to Veterans Affairs Canada to look into a person's file....
Col C.D. Harris
Yes, in fact, this was part of the trial. A two-year limit was put in place for the ill and injured veteran and their family to belong to the program. That has been eliminated. Under the new veteran family program, there is no timeline associated with it at all. Even if it has been two years that you've been out of the military, you're still welcome to come back into the program.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you very much.
I have another question for the veteran family program, one Mr. Kitchen also mentioned. To what degree are families allowed to receive these services without the veteran necessarily receiving them? If he or she is reluctant to receive them, how much are families allowed to receive? How much power do they have in this whole process?
Col C.D. Harris
They have all the power they want. They are more than entitled or eligible to use the services of the veteran family program, as a family member is considered right now to be a current serving member within the military family services program. As that status transitions, they have the same eligibility. Sometimes a member may be isolated from them. A family is still welcome and can still contribute to the veteran family program.
Cmdre Sean Cantelon
I would add that there's no geographic restriction on this. Family does not just mean spouse; it can mean parents, a niece, a nephew. If you're related to a serving member and you want to contact one of our MFRCs, feel free to do so, and they will reach out—or the military family program, or the family information line.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
How do you reach out to these families, if they don't necessarily know about the program?
Cmdre Sean Cantelon
This is multi-faceted. We have a closed Facebook community that we talk to. We use email and all the media relations that we can come up with. For the spectrum of family programs, for instance, under the Canadian Forces morale and welfare services, we have a Canadian Forces appreciation program. We'll use that list for mailing out. We have about 100,000 veterans on that list. Veterans Affairs is contacting all their known veterans. We are dealing with publicity in the local area and using good old-fashioned word of mouth. It is, then, multi-faceted, to try to reach out so that people are aware.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis
Great.
I'd like to thank both of you for taking time out of your busy schedule to testify today.
We'll need to recess and clear the room very quickly: we have an in camera issue I'd like to deal with.
[Proceedings continue in camera]