Veterans Affairs Committee on June 7th, 2018

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Okay.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Ms. Lambropoulos and Mr. Fraser, I think you're splitting the time?

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

I think I'll go ahead. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for being here.

I asked a question of Minister O'Regan regarding the million-dollar veterans emergency fund. That's part of these estimates. I'm wondering if you can explain to me exactly how you envision the fund working and who would make the decision of when that money can be utilized to help a veteran in crisis.

[Michel Doiron]

This is probably the one that I'm, believe it or not, the most excited about. That is the area where I always felt we didn't have the penetration that we should have. I have had to go in front of the media and everything else in the last couple of years to say that we have 23 funds; one may be depleted, but we're trying to work, as the minister described.

On this one, $1 million a year will go a long way to help our veterans who are homeless or maybe not so homeless sometimes but perhaps couch surfing. They're not all on the street, when we say “homeless”.

It is determined by our field operation people. There is an app. You can use it, or walk into one of our offices.

After hours, we set up a whole system. We have a 1-800 line associated with Health Canada, where veterans can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to get services. Now, as part of that call, if a call comes in that somebody has an emergency, they need whatever, whether it is at three o'clock in the morning or on Sunday, the Health Canada people have been trained, and they now will refer the call. We have people at the end of another phone. It's seamless for the veteran, by the way; the call is transferred to a front-line worker who will ask “What is your emergency?”.

I'm pleased to report that we've had none of those calls after hours or on the weekend. We're going to reassess if that's working after six months.

The local office, the case manager, or the veterans service agent will make the determination whether this is a genuine emergency.

I will be honest; we've had people who have tested the system in the three months. You know, they want to get their roof fixed. Well if you're on ELB at 90% and you're bringing in a fair amount of money, your roof may be broken but it doesn't necessarily mean it's an emergency. It may be an emergency for you.

I live on the coast, and every once in a while the wind rips a couple of shingles off my house, but it doesn't mean that it's an emergency.

If they can't pay their electrical bill and they're going to be expropriated on a Friday night, that's an emergency. We do what we can to make sure they don't land on the street. The front-line staff are doing that. We've worked with our finance colleagues to have a way to pay immediately. We're also working with the plethora of associations out there that work in the realm of homelessness and people at risk, to be able to get these people a shelter, a hotel room, a meal, whatever.

It's only been three months. We're still learning. We may have to tweak some stuff. I'll be honest that, with these types of programs, you always....

As of now, we have received 183 requests for the veterans emergency fund. I thought that 100 was favourable.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

When you say you've received requests, I assume that if a case manager is dealing with a situation and sees an opportunity to use the emergency fund, then the person doesn't have to ask for it.

[Michel Doiron]

They don't have to ask for it.

The case manager—we call them the VSA, the veteran service agent—can say, “You know what; we need to go there.” Before, it used to go to these bequest funds.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Yes.

[Michel Doiron]

Now they have a fund they can go to. Often what it allows us to do is to put somebody in their hotel room while we determine what their actually eligibility is for our other programs. Is there a service-related injury or not? This one, I think, is real.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Those bequest funds are still there and available.

[Michel Doiron]

Absolutely.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

This is just to offer some flexibility to Veterans Affairs to deal with cases that may take too long to go through that method.

[Michel Doiron]

Yes.

[RAdm Elizabeth Stuart]

Sometimes we are not able to use the bequest funds because they have very specific conditions for their application.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

Thank you.

I want to turn to the caregiver recognition benefit. I know this is a very important measure that will help a lot of veterans, their families, and spouses taking care of veterans. That's $1,000 a month, tax-free. Do you see the number of people receiving that benefit being pretty stable over time, or do you think it will be increasing or decreasing? If so, what would be the reason for that?

[Michel Doiron]

It's hard to predict. I suspect it's going to go up, but don't ask me to what extent. I just think that once it gets better known and the program is out there, we'll see a bit of a bump-up. I don't think it will be a huge bump-up as long as the program remains as it is. I think it will be a result of increased awareness.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

What's the uptake so far?

[Michel Doiron]

Up to now, I have had 271 applications, and as I mentioned earlier, we're waiting for all the 362 who were on the program to come in, so we're reaching out to those individuals. There were 244 from the old program, so we're talking about approximately another 25 new people who have applied.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

I know the minister talked earlier about being proactive in ensuring that veterans and their families are aware of the services and benefits provided to them. What about the caregiver recognition benefit? What's the department doing to make sure people who could qualify are aware that it's there?

[Michel Doiron]

Notwithstanding all the outreach and communication we've done on the program, we send out some correspondence to all the veterans who were on what used to be the family caregiver relief benefit and tell them to contact us. Right now, because there are outliers and we're trying to figure out who they are, we're looking at contacting them by phone.

[Colin Fraser, Liberal, West Nova, NS]

That would be great. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

That ends our time for committee questions.

We now have to vote.

Pursuant to Standing Order 81(4), the committee will now dispose of the main estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, minus the interim estimates the House agreed to on March 22, 2018.

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$1,036,044,570

Vote 5—Grants and acquisitions..........$3,327,017,000

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to)

VETERANS REVIEW AND APPEAL BOARD

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$9,584,154

(Vote 1 agreed to)

Shall I report the votes to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank all of you for appearing today, for taking time out of your day, and for all the work you do for veterans. I know there were some questions asked that you might get back to our clerk about.

May I have a motion to adjourn?

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

So moved.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

The meeting is adjourned.