Evidence of meeting #12 for Veterans Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was program.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you.
Lastly, I'll come back to that Veterans Affairs service provider. You still don't know if you're included in that. If you are included in that still, will you be able to revise a different way of programming?
I ran a charity for over eight years, so I know a lot about those core funds. I appreciate you making that clear for the committee.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Mr. Thorne, you mentioned other offices. Are other programs being cut?
Executive Director, Operations, Veterans Transition Network
Are you asking about programs within our organization?
Executive Director, Operations, Veterans Transition Network
The core program that we deliver is, at first the VTP and now that five-day TSC. It is really our core offering, so that's really the only service that we deliver currently.
We are working on that new peer support intervention as well, but as of now that's our core programming. It's the only program to be cut, as it were. It seems for now it has been cut, or paused at least, by Veterans Affairs.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thanks.
To any of the witnesses—because I know your statements were short and we're almost at the end of our time today—does anyone have anything that they want to add that they did not get a chance to add in their opening statements, which were very brief?
President, Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada
I would like to say something here, please.
I've been listening to everybody talk here today and listening to where the questions are being directed. As I said in my opening statement, the smaller veterans groups that are not bricks and mortar have been almost totally ignored in this COVID-19 funding.
It's not right that these smaller groups.... Some of the veterans out there don't want to be part of the Legion. They don't want to be part of other, different organizations. They're just the“mom-and-pop organizations, as I call them, yet they're totally ignored as a group.
Of all the questions today, I didn't really hear one that said anything about the smaller groups out there and how they were being funded or anything.
That's just what I wanted to say. Thank you.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Mr. Davis, you did say that part of the challenge is the complexity of the programs, even if there are some that you can apply for.
Is that, again, because of the size of your organization? You don't have someone who is there to specifically look at and check every box and dot every “i” to apply for the programs that are out there.
President, Persian Gulf Veterans of Canada
I heard today that we have grant writers, we have webmasters out there who take care and make all of these really nice web pages. The smaller groups don't have that luxury of having grant writers and webmasters, or can't afford to pay for all of these people who can do these jobs for us. We're all volunteers and our expertise is sometimes not in doing stuff like that.
I have a treasurer who is a serving member. He's trying to do the best he can. I have a vice-president who works on the civilian side. He tries to do the best he can, but we are not experts in the field. When our treasurer and our vice-president looked at all the process for applying for these grants, they saw that it was so complex for us, because we are a registered charity, but we're not at the point where we can hand out receipts for donations, because we can't afford that part of the CRA Act.
We have to rely on what we're doing, as it is, as the status quo. We can't answer all of these questions. We have the financial statements, but we don't have the big income tax filings that everybody else does.
For the little guys out there, the mom-and-pop veterans who work their tails off to try to help people out, they are overlooked very quickly, and I've just watched that here today. The bigger organizations, yes, they do great work, but there are some veterans out there who don't want anything to do with the big organizations. Of the ones I am helping, a half to three-quarters of them won't even talk to the Legion.
Executive Director, Multifaith Housing Initiative
Mr. Seeback, if I could take a moment, I would like to respond to Ms. Blaney's comment about Veterans' House being exclusive. Veterans' House is in no way exclusive to any one gender. It is open to all genders and all people who identify in any kind of gender.
The reality is, though, it is a place that is exclusive to veterans. You must have served and you have to be comfortable, in order to be in the building, with people in uniform coming into the building. If that is not a place of comfort for you, if that is going to do more harm than good, we do have other buildings and we have other units. We have 139 other units that I mentioned and we have supports that go into those buildings as well, and we will definitely house them and prioritize them, but this building is for a specific need.
Housing is a very complex issue and it will take complex responses to deal with it, and it requires a lot of tools in the tool box. Veterans' House is one tool that's in the tool box, and we need more. Maybe there will be, at some point in time, the need and demand and the ability for us to do a female-only space, but there would need to be the demand and the funding for it.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you very much.
I see Mr. Wilkins has his hand up, but maybe we'll come back to you, sir.
Andy, you have a very short window for a question or two.
Liberal
Andy Fillmore Liberal Halifax, NS
Thank you, Chair.
I want to say thank you to all the witnesses as well for making time for us today.
Mr. Wilkins, I was listening to your making the point about the differences between Legions and service clubs. Here in Halifax we have three Legions and two service clubs and they all perform remarkably well. I've spent a lot of time at each one of them.
Mr. Ankrett, with your comment about the fish and chips night and the importance of alternate funding arrangements, I take your point that it's much more complicated than just fish and chips and it makes me think about turning to other creative sources of revenue.
One thing that was happening before the pandemic, at least in Nova Scotia, was that recruitment was tipping off and Legions and service clubs were having a hard time keeping their membership up. That was sort of a double-whammy.
I'm wondering if there is something the government could be helping with, perhaps a program around recruitment that would help to bring people back to the—
Member, Branch 60, Royal Canadian Legion
You have multiple issues here. You're covering Legions, you're covering service clubs, you're covering the guys coming back from Afghanistan and Kuwait. You're looking at huge issues. If you try to put them all into one basket, you won't get very many things done. You need subcommittees to look at different things, such as service clubs, Legions, housing, benefits, health care. You have to do it, and you have to do it soon.
Someone mentioned earlier that if you don't, from a financial point of view, you will lose all of those poppy funds that are into the millions of dollars across Canada that are put back into your community, whether it's hospitals or veterans who need wheelchairs that some of them can't afford, etc. You're going to lose that, but you've got 100 years of history here.
If anyone doubts me, go to a Remembrance Day, and look at the faces of the people in the crowd. That's Canada. You're going to lose that, and you're going to lose it on your watch, and you've lost some already. Whatever you're going to do, do it now. Do it quickly, because if you don't, they're gone.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Mr. Wilkins, we're actually over time, but if you have one final point for us tonight, please go ahead.
President, Oshawa Naval Veterans' Club
I was a civilian who served in Afghanistan. There are many civilians across Canada who also served over there. In the hospitality section, I actually drove far off the base. I fuelled up tanks and TLAVs, and stuff with dangerous jet fuel. When I came home, I had hearing loss from over there as a result of a rocket attack. There are many other civilians who have had problems when they've come home.
There are absolutely no programs available for us at all. I talked to Veterans Affairs. The first thing I was asked for was an ID number. I don't have a DND number, and I've actually been hung up on, because I've argued with the individual.
As a civilian who went over there, and put his life on the line to help our soldiers, I believe all the civilians across Canada should be recognized with different programs. Unfortunately, we're not.
You guys are all sitting here today, you're all MPs, maybe it's time that one of you guys decide that the civilians who were in every war that Canada has ever been in should be recognized.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you. This is the final meeting of this study. Each of you has contributed in a number of ways to help us with this issue.
I want to thank all my colleagues scattered all over Canada for staying on time, and getting in some really good questions that will hopefully result in a solid report that we will see in the coming days and weeks.
Thank you all very much. Thanks to all the technical people in Ottawa, the clerks and the translation folk, so that we can all be heard in this unique way.
The meeting is adjourned.