Veterans Affairs Committee on March 20th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you. That ends today's time for testimony. I would like to thank both of you for appearing today.

General Natynczyk, again, we have a long history and I would like to thank you. I hired a veteran in my office who worked and trained under you. I find that veterans like to speak of veterans. Veterans who come into my office and see a vet sometimes end up walking the same road, and they enjoy that. Thank you for that training.

I suggest that all of us, as MPs, look at vets for our constituency offices and get them back to work.

We'll recess for about five minutes and then we'll come back. Thank you again.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I'd like to call the meeting back to order.

To slip to our second part, the Department of Veterans Affairs witnesses, we have Mr. Butler, assistant deputy minister, strategic policy and commemoration; Mr. Doiron, assistant deputy minister, service delivery; and Ms. Stuart, assistant deputy minister and chief financial officer, corporate services.

You don't have any testimony, so we'll start with questioning.

We'll start with the six-minute rounds with Mr. McColeman.

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

Should we not have testimony?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Sometimes we don't.

If you want to make an opening statement...

[Michel Doiron, Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs]

We have no opening statement, so we'll turn right into questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

“Just happy to be here” is your opening statement today, right?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

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

Okay, great. Well let's get at it.

Thanks for being here.

My first lead-in is referring to testimony from a meeting we had with your director of field operations, Mr. Cormier. Is he under your supervision, sir?

[Michel Doiron]

Yes.

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

Okay, so you're his boss. Thank you.

I asked him if VAC keeps statistics of contacts with veterans contacts, in particular, how they contact VAC. He said yes, that statistics are kept, whether they come through online or from My VAC Account or through an office door at one of the offices. Later in the testimony, I asked for those statistics—as detailed as possible—to be presented to this committee by way of the channel they were received and by way of location. His answer to that was that, yes, he would do that.

Do you know why there is a delay in our getting that information? These should be statistics that are kept on an ongoing basis.

[Michel Doiron]

I absolutely do not, but I'll follow up on it. We do have the statistics. We have them by mode, whether from phone calls or contacts via My VAC Account. The only thing that we don't have very specifically are the walk-ins to the offices. We don't track that one exactly the same way, but we have case management, adjudications, our phones, and My VAC Account—and even emails to My VAC Account. I actually have some numbers here, but if you've requested that, I'll make sure we get that back to you.

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

I find it interesting that you say you don't keep statistics for people coming into regional offices. You do not?

[Michel Doiron]

No. We have started tracking the actual traffic, but that's one area that was lacking.

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

When did you start?

[Michel Doiron]

A few months ago.

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

Okay, so prior to that, you're saying here today, VAC never tracked the number of people coming into a VAC office?

[Michel Doiron]

No, because they usually come in to meet their case management, so we were tracking that. However, we were not tracking people just coming in to grab a pamphlet or things like that.

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

I just want to explore this a little deeper with you. If you don't mind, I'm going to drill down here. When someone comes into a VAC office, typically you would think the person would be a veteran.

[Michel Doiron]

Typically, yes.

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

Most of the time?

[Michel Doiron]

It could be a veteran or a family member. I mean if you have—

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

Yes, so someone acting on the veteran's behalf.

[Michel Doiron]

Yes. Let's be clear. It's not only veterans, because family members do come in to request information.

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

You're saying it's frequent that someone comes in and just says, “All I want is a brochure”?

[Michel Doiron]

Yes.