Evidence of meeting #90 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 budget.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs
Okay, so we're working on various—
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
—and you can expand on that answer, I guess—
12:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs
—avenues to accelerate it.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Okay, thank you. I know you'll get those questions. I don't mean to cut you off. I apologize.
I want to touch on the last one. It's important. It's the pension for life. You know, we still are trying to drill in and get a good comprehension of that.
If you already received your lump sum, which also would have included your increase in the lump sum on April 1 of the additional $50,000—depending on your percentage—can you still get on that track? How do you get on, and how does it work? Just take a basic formula because there are all kinds of categories: pain and suffering, additional pain and suffering, 90%. I don't want that. Basically, if you received your 100% lump sum, are you still able to get on, and how do you track on?
12:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Commemoration, Department of Veterans Affairs
Mr. Chair, because the recurring monthly pension of pain and suffering compensation may, in fact, be worth more to a person than the lump sum was, depending on that person's age and when that person received his or her lump sum award, essentially what we will be doing is this. Come April 1, 2019, the file of every recipient of a disability award will be looked at, and there will be a simple calculation made to determine whether or not, had that veteran received the lifelong benefit, the monthly benefit, back in time when he or she received the disability award, if that recurring monthly benefit is worth more. If it is worth more, then there is a simple formula that considers the age and gender, an actuarial analysis and so on, that will determine on a go-forward basis what the difference would be, and the veteran will receive that amount for life.
12:20 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy and Commemoration, Department of Veterans Affairs
That's a very simple explanation.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
12:20 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
My first question has to do with the in-patient care facilities. The minister clarified that there is no intention of creating in-patient care facilities. Has the department ever sourced out what it would cost, or done any research or developed any plans around...?
So, nothing has been planned, even though the government made these promises to veterans in 2015 during the campaign? There has been no cost analysis or plan on doing this? There's no report to the minister that has been—
12:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs
Not on...except the cost of the Ste. Anne's Hospital. That is an in-patient facility.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Yes, okay.
With regard to the education and training benefit program, the last time you were here you said that it was $22 million. Has that number changed?
12:25 p.m.
RAdm Elizabeth Stuart
No, it hasn't changed.
12:25 p.m.
RAdm Elizabeth Stuart
Yes, and the issue is that we have a system of internal controls where we assess, on a constant basis, the intake and the projected intake, and adjust as may be required.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Great, because the promise was $80 million. Now it's $22 million a year.
Again, it's quite a significant reduction in what was promised. In terms of that, it would be great to get some information about the number of people who are being rejected as well. If we could get that tabled, that would be fantastic.
12:25 p.m.
RAdm Elizabeth Stuart
May I add something? The education and training benefit is $133.9 million over six years.
12:25 p.m.
RAdm Elizabeth Stuart
Right. It's to provide up to $80,000 to veterans in support of post-secondary—
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NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Yes. Thanks. That's great.
To go back to the website, I talked about this earlier. Veterans Affairs Canada states right on its website that it's having “difficulty providing timely, high quality core services and benefits to Veterans and their families while simultaneously implementing several new initiatives and programs from multiple.... Budgets”.
Mr. Doiron, you've identified that the backlog is not getting better. It increased by 50% from last year from February to November, up to 29,000, and now you're saying it's at 33,000.
12:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs
I'd like to clarify. That's not the backlog. That is the pending.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Okay. That's pending? Then the backlog has grown from 9,000 to 10,000 in terms of—
12:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs
Yes. That's correct.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
—your targets that you've set for delivery. I think there's something to be said there about how people are finding out about the programs, but also, you're creating and offering veterans more programs. These programs are no good to anyone unless they can access them. This is the problem.
I think I've asked this question before. How did the department come up with $42.8 million over two years? Has there been an analysis of how we get this backlog to zero?
12:25 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery, Department of Veterans Affairs
Yes. Thank you for the question. There has been analysis.
To be honest, I don't think we'll ever get the backlog to zero, because in an operational environment you always have files that—for good reasons—will be late. I just want to say—
