Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 20th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I'd like to call the meeting to order.

The Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs undertakes two new studies today. One is homeless veterans and the other is medical cannabis and veterans' well-being.

In relation to the study of homeless veterans, we're pleased to welcome two witnesses by video conference. Unfortunately, we have video conference problems today, so we will have Faith McIntyre, Director General of Policy and Research Division, Strategic Policy and Commemoration by video conference, and on the phone from Mississauga, with no video, will be Robert Tomljenovic, Area Director.

Ms. McIntyre, you have 10 minutes.

[Faith McIntyre, Director General, Policy and Research Division, Strategic Policy and Commemoration, Department of Veterans Affairs]

I'll begin the opening remarks and turn to my colleague to complete them.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to speak to you about this very important topic.

As noted, my name is Faith McIntyre, and I'm the Director General of Policy and Research.

Veteran homelessness is unacceptable in Canada, and one homeless veteran is one too many. A picture of homeless veterans is not easily available. According to Employment and Social Development Canada's coordinated point-in-time counts, which were carried out on a specific date in the early spring of 2016, in 31 different locations across the country, veterans accounted for nearly 5% of all homeless Canadians. An additional similar study regarding point in time was conducted in the spring of 2018, and we are still awaiting the results.

Veterans, similar to the general population, become homeless as a result of complex and interrelated issues, for example, health status, personal problems such as family breakdown or violence, employment instability, poverty, lack of affordable housing, and addiction. However, what sets veterans apart from the general homeless population is their transition from military life to a civilian culture and a civilian world.

We find that many veterans have experienced traumatic and dangerous situations as a result of their military service and often struggle with the after-effects of these experiences. As well, we find that homeless veterans tend to become homeless much later in their lives, quite a while after their release.

A 2013 Canadian Forces mental health survey identified that one in six regular Canadian Armed Forces members identified symptoms of at least one of the following mental health conditions in the past 12 months: depression, panic disorder, PTSD, general anxiety disorder, and alcohol abuse or dependence.

The Veterans Affairs Canada life after service studies identified that approximately one-quarter of veterans released from the military since 1998 have experienced a difficult transition.

As the federal department responsible for veterans' well-being, we have the lead to ensure a whole-of-government approach is taken to address veteran homelessness, and this is a top priority for us. The effort must be a collaborative one. It takes the whole community to support the well-being of veterans and their families. The key to making progress will be in continuing to forge strong partnerships with a variety of organizations that are equally as passionate and charged with this issue.

On June 7, 2018, Veterans Affairs Canada hosted a round table on homelessness in Ottawa, which included over 70 participants from 65 national and regional organizations. The participants were all identified as subject matter experts in the area of homelessness, particularly focusing on veterans. As a result of this round table, an interactive map has been developed and is live on our external website. It identifies resources across the country that can provide supports to homeless veterans.

We are working on Coming Home, Veterans Affairs Canada's strategy to prevent and end veteran homelessness. This strategy proposes a number of objectives that will ensure that Canada's homeless veterans receive the support they need to achieve housing stability and well-being, and assist in reducing the likelihood of veterans from ever being homeless.

Veterans Affairs Canada, along with the Canadian Armed Forces and other government and community partners, are working closely to ensure that finding homeless veterans becomes easier. Our proposed homelessness approach is broken down into four themes: lead and engage, by improving collaboration and leadership; find, by improving outreach and identification; assist, by improving mechanisms to assist homeless veterans; and prevent, through optimizing veteran well-being.

Several initiatives are already under way. For example, the return of the veteran's service card was recently announced. This will allow veterans to more easily be identified and to feel a greater sense of community.

In addition, we have developed a new homeless veteran poster, which will be distributed to over 2,000 areas within Canada.

We are also partnering on improving the military-to-civilian transition mechanism to ensure a successful transition to civilian life by bridging members releasing from the Canadian Armed Forces to the support they require.

In budget 2017, Veterans Affairs Canada established the veterans emergency fund, along with the veteran and family well-being fund.

The veterans emergency fund provides emergency financial support to veterans, their families and their survivors whose well-being is at risk due to an urgent and unexpected situation. More than 450 veterans have already benefited from this program.

As announced earlier this month, Veterans Affairs Canada has chosen 21 organizations out of 155 applicants to the veteran and family well-being fund, awarding a total of $3 million.

Of the 21 organizations selected for the fund, three have specifically identified their projects to assist homeless veterans.

The three organizations are Veterans Emergency Transition Services Canada, or VETS Canada, the Respect Campaign and the Old Brewery Mission. Other organizations among the 21 are indirectly involved but will still take positive steps to support homeless veterans.

We are excited to work with these great organizations to improve the state of veteran homelessness in Canada.

I will now ask my colleague Robert Tomljenovic, who has joined you by teleconference as indicated by the chair, to speak to you about what is being done in the area offices.

[Robert Tomljenovic, Area Director, Department of Veterans Affairs]

Thank you, Faith.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Again, I apologize for the technical difficulties this afternoon.

My name is Robert Tomljenovic and I'm the Area Director for the southwestern Ontario area at Veterans Affairs Canada. I am responsible for about 100 employees located in five area offices and service locations and three integrated personnel support centres, or IPSCs, serving over 12,120 veterans living in the area.

I would like to thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee. I'm happy to be here with Faith to provide more details about our work to prevent and address veteran homelessness on the ground.

As you know, homelessness can result from a magnitude of life situations that an individual may experience. Research indicates that veterans, like the general population, become homeless as a result of complex and interrelated issues such as health status, personal problems, employment instability, poverty, lack of affordable housing, addiction issues and others.

However, veterans are unique from the rest of the population in that their experience within the military may have significantly contributed to the factors that led them into homelessness. Some veterans have faced extreme situations such as combat, injuries, high levels of stress, and long absences from families, home and supports.

The goal for us, as the front-line team for Veterans Affairs, is to create an increased awareness with our community partners to help identify homeless veterans. To do so we have adopted a few strategies.

Our case managers and other VAC staff work with a number of community organizations to identify homeless veterans in the local areas via a number of outreach initiatives, such as reaching out to local shelters and first responders and engaging in community activities geared towards assisting the homeless population.

Veterans Affairs Canada has 38 office sites across the country, and our staff within each location is working with veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, and with local homeless organizations and service providers.

We also work closely with the Canadian Armed Forces to improve the transition of members from military to civilian life. Early intervention is one of the most critical components of a successful transition process and can prevent difficulties that may result in homelessness.

As Faith mentioned, since April 1, 2018, we also have the veterans emergency fund which allows us to attend to immediate financial distress as quickly as possible at any time of the day—evenings, nights and weekends.

We have veterans service agents across the country available on call. These VSAs have been trained on how to apply the veterans emergency fund and they have access to subject matter experts to help them with any complex cases.

We understand the needs of veterans in Calgary can differ from those in Halifax. We must be flexible and nimble to adjust to the needs of the person and the community.

VAC is the catalyst to bring key partners and stakeholders together, such as VETS Canada, the Royal Canadian Legion, Soldiers Helping Soldiers, Veterans Helping Veterans, Aboriginal Veterans Autochtones, and other organizations focused on the issue.

Continued discussion and dialogue among all of our organizations is an essential part of the way forward to preventing and ending veteran homelessness.

Thank you again for the invitation to speak to you today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

We'll start with six minutes, Ms. Wagantall.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you both for being here today and being part of this study. It's much appreciated.

I'd like to start out asking a question around the emergency fund of $1 million that is now available to our veterans. I understand that the service managers have now been informed on how to release those funds. When did it go live? When were funds released from that $1 million to veterans?

[Robert Tomljenovic]

The veterans emergency fund became effective April 1, 2018, so as of that date we would have started to receive applications, and payments that were approved would have gone out. I don't have the specific details on when the first fund application was approved, but as of that date, we went live with the $1 million.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

So you can't tell me what date the funding started to go out. I had heard a number of scenarios where it wasn't available on April 1. Are you telling me that it was all set up and structured, ready to go, that calls were taken and it was being distributed right as of April 1, 2018?

[Robert Tomljenovic]

Yes, to my understanding that is what occurred. I can tell you, in my area offices, we started getting applications as of that date.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

To process funding to go out the door when you got the phone call?

[Robert Tomljenovic]

Right. We would receive the application and then we would review it. Then the process would be, if it was approved, that we would pay the funds for whichever emergency it was being requested for.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

That's fine, thanks. I just have a lot of questions. I don't mean to cut you off.

[Robert Tomljenovic]

That's okay.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

I'm aware of VETS Canada, and I'm really pleased to see the groups that you're choosing to work with in regard to homelessness and getting a quick out the door response to things. My understanding with them is that, even as of September, in the first two months of being open here in Ottawa, they had 65 referrals from case managers to go there, because they could get the money out the door more quickly than going through VAC directly.

I want to explore this relationship a little bit more, because it pleases me to see that using these veterans organizations is seen as a very positive method of meeting the needs of our veterans. How effective do you find these organizations are in providing veterans services?

[Robert Tomljenovic]

It's a community-based approach to assisting homelessness and certainly homeless veterans. We welcome our close partnerships with many of our key stakeholders, and VETS Canada has been one of them. I could tell you the Royal Canadian Legion has been immensely positive, certainly down here in my area in southwestern Ontario. We have a very strong relationship with them.

Even in terms of identifying homelessness and then assisting to try to house them and provide the necessary—

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Would you say—and I'm not putting words in your mouth—that it relieves the strain on the department? They play a significant role in dealing with veterans directly and with the backlog that you're still working through.

[Robert Tomljenovic]

I wouldn't say they relieve the strain. I would say we work collaboratively. For example, a lot of our referrals will come through the Royal Canadian Legion. We count on them, because often when a veteran identifies, they prefer to identify, for whichever reason, to someone they're familiar with, like someone from the Legion, so we do get a lot of referrals directly from them, and from there we work together to assist.

But, you're right—

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Do you refer in the other direction?

[Robert Tomljenovic]

Yes, we do, certainly.

For example, if we have a mutual client with VETS Canada, our case managers aren't available on a Saturday at two in the morning, but VETS Canada may know that veteran and then assist over the weekend. We certainly follow up the following week and just have those discussions. They do play a vital role in helping us.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

They do.

You mentioned the round table that was held. How many were involved? I don't have it right in front of me. I'm wondering if you could provide the list of the subject matter experts who participated in that round table.

[Faith McIntyre]

We had 70 individuals who participated in that round table in June, from 65 national and regional organizations. In order to spare you some time, we can certainly send you the list of the organizations rather than listing them all out for you. We do have that available.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Oh no, I'm not asking you to list them right now, but to provide a list of which ones were part of that round table and who the subject matter experts were. That would be very good. Thank you. I appreciate that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

You're out of time. It goes quickly.

[Cathay Wagantall, Conservative, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

It does.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Mr. Eyolfson.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you, Chair, and thanks to both of you for coming.

I have a fair amount of experience with homelessness, as I practised emergency medicine in the inner city for a number of years. I know that in a lot of the homeless—not just vets, but the homeless in general—there's a very significant overlay of mental illness.

From what I've understood from some of the witnesses in other studies when they talk about homeless vets, many vets, due to mental illness or other issues, have more or less gone off the grid, in common parlance, and are very hard to find. Are there any statistics or is there any idea or estimate as to how many veterans might be unaccounted for and may be at risk? You might have a good idea that a person is out there and homeless, but do you have any idea of the numbers?