Veterans Affairs Committee on June 7th, 2018

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Mr. Kitchen, I've repeated it every chance I could get, and I'll tell you why. If I'm living in Kingston, I want an in-house facility in Kingston, and if I'm living in Tofino I want an in-house facility in Tofino.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Yet here right now you just said we have to move away from them.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I want a centre of excellence that will address the country's needs, and that people from across the country—

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

So you're going to put a centre of excellence that creates academics—

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

No, I have a centre of excellence that will provide research and development—

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Excuse me.

Mr. Kitchen, can you let the minister answer?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

—that will be applicable to everybody across the country, because as somebody who grew up in a remote military community I can tell you that an in-house facility in Kingston or Ottawa or Vancouver or wherever does not affect me, and if I have a certain number of dollars, I'm going to make sure it has outreach to every community and every Canadian veteran whom I can hit with maximum impact.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you, Minister.

You're out of time, Mr. Kitchen.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I live in a rural community and these people do not get good service, and they're asking for them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Mr. Bratina, you're next.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Thank you.

I'd like to know something about keeping track of the vets. In our recent tour we were in Beauval, Saskatchewan, and the minister will know that I encountered a 98-year-old veteran of Sicily, Italy, who had walked over 100 miles to enlist back in 1939. I wonder, Minister, is there a data bank where you can punch up the name of Louis Roy and determine that he's still alive.

I've been looking up the stats on older veterans, and the latest one I have is from StatsCan 2017. About 50,000 Second World War veterans were still alive. You'd probably figure it's 40-something now. These are very elderly individuals who may need very serious care for themselves. Do we know who and where they are? How do we identify them? How do we keep track of those folks?

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I will let the deputy get into the specifics of it, but I will say that this will be one of the great secondary benefits of pension for life. We will have constant contact with veterans now.

What happens sometimes with the lump sum is that you lose touch. I think, actually, this is going to have a significant impact on the homelessness situation as well, because in order to get the money to you, we have to be in constant contact with you. This is important for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it's so that as people's medical or financial conditions change, we have some idea of what's going on with them. That's very important. Also, from their point of view, it's the constant recognition of their service. There's something to be said for getting something in the mail or even seeing a certain amount electronically deposited into your bank account every month. It's just a constant reminder that you are valued and recognized.

It's something that spills over into the caregiver recognition benefit as well.

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

Can I just add, and say exactly with regard to the pension for life, that now we will have that monthly connection between the department and those new Veterans Charter veterans.

For those under the old Pension Act prior to April 1, 2006, we would know about your 98-year-old veteran if he was actually a client of Veterans Affairs and he came to us.

Often, for some of these generations of veterans, as you can imagine, they're independent and don't want help from anybody. We had an incident here in the city. You might have heard about the 100-year-old veteran who had a break and enter at his home. This fellow had been a lieutenant-colonel and had landed at D-Day. He had been the deputy minister of six departments. After this attempted murder of him, we rolled in and asked, can we help you? And he said, back off. I'm fine. This guy had been a former deputy minister of Veterans Affairs. He said, I'm not a client. I'm good. So we need to reach out when these veterans want to come to us.

When we opened the office in Prince George, British Columbia, I was at the opening of that office last spring, and there were three door crashers there.

One veteran is a 94-year-old Royal Canadian Air Force World War II veteran. He was at the front door, and said, “I don't need any help at all. I'm living 200 kilometres north of here on a 250-acre piece of property. I have no electricity and no water, and someday they're going to take my driver's licence away from me and I just want to make sure you're here.”

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Wow!

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

This is just to say that for some of these folks, it's a question of when they want to present.

For some of them who are coming forward for the first time—even though they're World War II or Korean War vets, they're coming forward for the first time—especially for a mental health injury, as we deal with stigma, we will now know where they are. Or they will come to us just before they need long-term care. Again, the door is open to them coast to coast.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Was I going to share with Mr. Samson?

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Yes.

Mr. Samson, you have two minutes.

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

Thank you, Minister, for being here today. Thank you, General.

We don't have much time, of course. They left me to the last here, so I'm tailing on what's left. I'll have to hit questions, and perhaps you can provide me with some answers.

The centre of excellence is a big piece of what I think is important. Regarding its structure now, I'd like to see how provinces that are leaders in research and veterans, like Halifax for example, fit into that centre of excellence. What is the communication? How can we identify and make sure that the best practices they may have or that may come up nationally can be shared so that, through OSI or other programs, we're able to support our veterans?

Second, as you noted, we see an increase in the number of requests, a 32% increase in the number of people, and we know it's because we're doing a better job at awareness. Do we have those numbers as far as regions are concerned and indigenous veterans? Of the 32% increase, how many come from what province? Are they rural compared to urban, and do they include indigenous veterans?

My final question is in regard to the $26.3-million investment for the Canada remembers program and Last Post. What types of services do these organizations provide for veterans? That would be my only question. The other stuff you can send in.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I'll begin with the centre of excellence and just say that the whole intention of it was.... You have to hang your shingle out somewhere, and it will be at the Royal Ottawa. The whole idea is that this is shared information right across the country that will empower front-line medical professionals, and we have some 4,000 at our disposal. This will further information and research and development on PTSD and related mental health issues, and that will empower all the front-line staff we use right across the country. That communication will run two ways.

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

I'd like it to run two ways, such that the expertise and best practices in the provinces—

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Mr. Samson, I'm not territorial about this at all. That was the whole point of it, so it will be two-way.

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

I just want to reinforce what the minister indicated. You'll be aware that the department runs 10 operational stress injury clinics coast to coast, which are outpatient. In Ste. Anne's Hospital in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Montreal, we have a residential program, and we fund veterans going into residential programs coast to coast.

When we worked on the centre of excellence, we went to our American friends, who run their own medical system with 1,500 point-of-service hospitals and clinics for their folks. They have created centres of excellence across the country. They found out that it is better to have a combination of physical locations and virtual networks with respect to centres of excellence. For example, their PTSD centre of excellence was in Vermont, but that wasn't enough. It was just one location for research. They needed to network all of the best minds across the U.S. and internationally, because the challenge is upping the game of all the practitioners.

In our country, as I mentioned, we run 11 OSI clinics, both outpatient and residential, and we're connected to seven operational stress injury clinics run by the Canadian Armed Forces. We are partnering with all of the provinces from Nova Scotia to British Columbia—

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

And Newfoundland.

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

And Newfoundland, sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I'm sorry. We're over our time here.