Evidence of meeting #76 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 vac.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
What is preventing you from filling the positions? You say that you are not at full capacity in terms of human resources. How problematic is it?
BGen Mark Misener
About 10% of the positions are unfilled, but most of them are reserve positions. It also depends on the location. For example, we want a reservist in a certain place, but there aren't any. That's the problem. We're trying to make changes. Where we have reservists, we're trying to have regular force members.
We absolutely want to make sure we have all the human resources we need to support our members. However, as in all areas of work, some people can't occupy certain positions, whether for personal or medical reasons.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
It's a problem that worries you, but it doesn't seem to matter, as I understand it.
BGen Mark Misener
I don't think it's a problem. In fact, the same problem occurs in all workplaces; some people are sick or take sick leave.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
What indicators of performance measures does the CAF transition program apply to transition to such civilian employment community organizations as Canada Company and Helmets to Hardhats?
BGen Mark Misener
These are third party organizations. Obviously we want to work with third parties and help them to support our members as they transition. We want to do some sort of validation to confirm what they provide to members, but we don't measure third party outcomes.
If we do measure, it's through their reporting to us on their successes. A very successful program in Alberta, for example, is Prospect. Prospect and the Alberta provincial government work very closely together in a not-for-profit enterprise and develop programs to support veterans who are transitioning. They have very high placement rates—an 85% success rate in placement, and then retention rates of 90%. These are reports that they provide us. It's very encouraging, because this result supports our members.
February 15th, 2018 / 12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
My question is for Ms. Douglas.
Earlier you said that improvements have been made since 2015 and that you've gone back to 2006 to take care of things that had fallen through the cracks. I wonder whether you can specify what you meant.
Director General, Service Delivery and Program Management, Department of Veterans Affairs
Yes, certainly. Thank you for the question.
One thing I would hope to get across is that we at VAC are continuously looking at and take very seriously concerns and problems that have been raised by veterans as to our programs since 2006, the period of time when our new veterans charter came in. It, of course, has been aligned with our well-being model and the indicators of well-being.
Our new programs coming in place on April 1, 2018, do address well-being, perhaps even more than our programs have in the past. There is, then, continuous improvement.
Also, we listen to what people say who want to advise us and make recommendations to us. We look at their input and find out what's meaningful for us and how we can incorporate it. As I pointed out, we are doing a service delivery review, and it is touching everything that we look at.
We're looking at our applications. We were criticized for our applications. As a result, we are looking to streamline. We're absolutely ensuring that we do not have a VAC application that asks someone with a double-limb injury to come back and prove that they have that double-limb injury. That does not happen at VAC.
We have streamlined several applications and letters in the past period of time, over the past year. We are working with our veterans on our client surveys, in which we get some good results on certain areas. That's not to say that we don't have great results in other areas. It will be those areas that we will go back to, doing a deeper dive to see how we can improve: in terms of working with my colleague at CAF, how do we go forward, and what have we done over the past few years by way of enhanced transition?
When we put our case managers and our VSAs into the IPSCs, all of that makes us a stronger organization collectively to better serve our members and our veterans.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Okay. Thank you.
You mentioned just now that often they don't have to prove more than once that they've had these service injuries, but we spoke to a veteran who mentioned that he had to prove it several times. He has a broken or an amputated foot and has had to prove that more than once. He was not happy, obviously, about having to do it. Obviously there are improvements that can be made.
Can you speak to improvements that you see should be made?
Director General, Service Delivery and Program Management, Department of Veterans Affairs
Improvements that I see? One of the first is in applications. We have a heck of a lot of applications at Veterans Affairs. We would like to go to one application.
What we would like to do is ensure that a veteran or a family member provides us information once, and then instead of asking them to repeatedly provide us with this information, it's given once. We're working electronically with My VAC Account to do that. It will not be ready right away, but it's something we're working towards.
In terms of transition, with my colleague we have a VAC-CAF joint task force on seamless transition. We're looking at a number of projects to make that transition as seamless as possible.
In terms of adjudication, we're looking at ways in which we can diminish this backlog. We are constantly looking to improve. I find it very unfortunate if my comments left the impression with this committee that we are so bureaucratic that we focus on a program-centric approach rather than a veteran-centric approach, because veteran-centricity is really what we're all about.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Misener, thank you once again for your service to Canada and for the information you have shared with us.
I have a few questions that, of course, touch on the Joint Personnel Support Unit.
Some witnesses who have appeared before us seemed to say that the period of time was problematic. It's for six months, or more. They were even wondering whether, at the Joint Personnel Support Unit, the service offer should be for life, not for six months
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Yes. At the Joint Personnel Support Unit, it's a six-month window.
Shouldn't it exist for a longer period of time?
BGen Mark Misener
I will answer in English.
The six months is really for a standard transition. For anyone who is severely ill or injured or has complex needs, it changes; they have a much longer time—up to three years, actually.
The other thing to understand is that the whole process from when someone is deemed to breach universality of service and needs to be released can take two to five years, just because of the whole process. For this to all happen in six months is a very rare exception, if it does happen.
It actually takes quite a lengthy period of time even for the adjudication of the medical limitation to be determined—the better part of a year—because it requires a process of determining the limitation and then ensuring that a disclosure is presented to the member, and then the member has an opportunity to make representations, because the member is involved in all of this entire process.
Six months is the standard for medical transition, but in reality it is actually quite a bit longer than that. This allows the member at that point to start working closely with our Veterans Affairs colleagues and start planning for that transition to occur.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Well, I'm glad you made reference to the universality of service, because I'd like to pry a little deeper into that.
Do you feel in your experience that members are not necessarily sharing how severely injured they are because they want to return to work and are afraid that if they do share, they're out?
BGen Mark Misener
What's important to understand is that neither I nor my units see the medical information associated with a member. That is private and is held by the doctors and the medical folks.
I don't know whether they are withholding their information. I expect they would not be, because they are going to see their health professionals to get help. I expect they tell their health professionals the truth, and that's what is needed.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
I'm hearing from a number of veterans that they're very hesitant, because the conclusion could be the end of their service.
You made reference to universality of service. We're looking now at expanding it or making it more flexible so that it won't be an end-all. You said you were working on it because, of course, we said no release prior to that.
Can you tell me where you are on it? What areas are you looking at that could make it more flexible?
BGen Mark Misener
I'll just clarify. The CDS has directed that we look at universality of service. When I say “we”, I mean the chief of military personnel.
