Veterans Affairs Committee on March 8th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I call this meeting to order. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on October 27, 2020, the committee is resuming its study on supports and services to veterans, caregivers and families.

Welcome to all of the witnesses who have taken the time to join us today. I will introduce you here all at once and then we'll get right into opening remarks.

From the Caregivers' Brigade, we have Marie-Andrée Malette, director for veteran families. We also are joined by Jeanette McLeod, director of community education; and Paula Ramsay, director for serving families. Welcome to you all. From Caregiving Matters, we are joined by Mary Bart, who is the chair. Appearing as individuals, we have retired navy captain Angus Cameron from the Canadian Armed Forces; as well as Mr. Richard Lavallée.

We're going to give each organization or individual an opportunity to have five minutes for opening remarks, and then we'll proceed with rounds of questions.

We'll start with the Caregivers' Brigade.

I believe Marie-Andrée is going to start us off. If so, the next five minutes are all yours.

[Marie-Andrée Malette, Director for Veteran Families, Caregivers' Brigade]

We're going to share our time.

My name is Marie-Andrée. I am a registered nurse by trade. I'm the spouse of a veteran who sustained some injuries—physical and psychiatric injuries—and together we started Caregivers' Brigade in 2013 to offer some support online to spouses like us who struggle with finding solutions in our everyday lives.

I'm going to let my colleagues present themselves.

[Jeanette McLeod, Director of Community Education, Caregivers' Brigade]

Good afternoon. My name is Jeanette McLeod. I am the spouse, as well, of a Canadian Armed Forces veteran.

I'm the director of community education with the Caregivers' Brigade. I help to promote a better understanding of PTSD and physical injuries in the community, to local college students as well as local hospitals, by bringing education about situations faced by veterans if the caregiver becomes ill. I also am a volunteer with VETS Canada and help to assist any veterans who may be struggling in the community.

I'll now pass it over to my colleague.

[Paula Ramsay, Director for Serving Families, Caregivers' Brigade]

Hi. I'm Paula Ramsay.

As I was introduced by the chair, I'm the director for serving families. Part of my job within the Caregivers' Brigade is to focus on DND policies and transition from service. We all work really hard together to try to help other families like ours find the services they need, and our website, which we launched in 2014, has a little over 140 Canadian-accessible resources.

That's it for my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Is that it? I'm sorry, I didn't want to interrupt, because you do have more time left. However, if that was all, we'll continue.

From Caregiving Matters, we have Mary Bart, who is the chair.

Five minutes are all yours.

[Mary Bart, Chair, Caregiving Matters]

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so honoured to be part of this meeting. My dad was a vet, as were most of my aunts and uncles, and I still have one uncle who is happily living in the Perley in Ottawa. This topic is near and dear to my heart.

I am chair of a registered charity called Caregiving Matters. We were founded in 2008 and we're a little bit different. We are an Internet-based charity. Our mission is to offer education and support to family caregivers. Everything we do is virtual, and on our website you will find literally dozens and dozens of topics that relate to family caregivers, everything from caregiving to elder abuse to estate planning to power of attorney. We have a wide range of topics, and I'll be happy to share my thoughts as we go through this.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

You are all being very succinct, which the MPs really appreciate, it gives them more time to ask questions, which is great.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair, but the last two minutes of Ms. Bart's speech were not translated. I know that there is a problem with the interpretation and that it was very echoey, even in English. Could we hear the last two minutes of Ms. Bart's speech again?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

There was a sound problem in English as well, and I was just speaking with the clerk quickly about whether or not they had a headset sent out. I'm not sure if maybe the clerk can ask to do another sound check with Ms. Bart and she can repeat.

I agree that the sound was not great in either language.

Ms. Bart, can you try again?

[Mary Bart]

Gladly.

It worked a minute ago. Can you hear me?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Ms. Bart, if you don't mind, we're going to skip you and get IT to give you a call directly. We'll go on with the other opening remarks. Let's hope we can get it figured out before too long.

[Mary Bart]

Okay, just give me a second if they're going to call me.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

That's not a problem. Thank you.

You have my appreciation, Monsieur Desilets, for making that point. We want to make sure everybody can be heard properly.

We're going to move on to, appearing as an individual, navy captain, retired, Mr. Cameron of the Canadian Armed Forces.

The next five minutes are all yours, sir.

[Angus Cameron, As an Individual]

Good evening. Good afternoon. Thank you for having me here.

I have to correct you on the rank thing. That's my profession now that I'm out of the navy; I'm a boat captain. I never got to the high rank of a naval captain—just to straighten that out.

I love our veterans. I spent 26 years in the navy, and when I see inconsistencies or wrongs, things that are not proper with regard to our senior veterans—mostly in long-term care but that's not always the case—I have to step forward. I guess that's my whole purpose.

These heroes sometimes don't have a voice. They don't want to say anything. They don't want to bother anybody. They're happy with what they have, and when it's not correct, I have no problem speaking for them. That's my thing. That's what I like to do. I am in a little bit of correspondence with a couple of big corporations about empathy and compassion towards our veterans, and that's what I'm working on at the moment.

I thank you for the invitation and appreciate joining this meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much, sir.

Up next we have Mr. Richard Lavallée.

The next five minutes are all yours, sir.

[Richard Lavallée, As an Individual]

Good afternoon, thank you.

I am a veteran who served two missions in Germany. I spent five and a half years of my life doing various small missions in Germany.

The reason I'm here today is because I joined the Royal 22nd Regiment veterans group, which has a lot of veterans.

For the past few years, we have decided to help veterans of the Royal 22nd Regiment who have difficulty integrating into the system to get medical help, psychiatric help or help with their pensions. The system is flawed and often people give up and end up on the street in Montreal. I have also been involved with the homeless in Montreal for seven years. I also meet a lot of veterans whom we redirect to the system and who start from scratch. They are not aware of all the help they can receive.

So we decided to come together and help them. On February 21, I attended an event with homeless people. We were about 50 veterans of the Royal 22nd Regiment here in Montreal and we had a small booth. We identified six new veterans and referred them to resources that can help them. In Montreal, the need is great, as it is everywhere. So we decided to help the homeless, to speak up on their behalf and to ask for help for those who can't.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you, sir, and thank you for your service.

I'll just check in with the clerk to see if we have had any luck with Ms. Bart. Not yet? Okay.

Rachel, do you have a point here?

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Yes, Chair. I'm sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to ask the clerk if they could fix it. The staff are having a hard time. They're only seeing one—the speaker and not the whole group—so if we could get that fixed for our staff, that would be great.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I'll leave that for the clerk and the technicians. For anything technical, I'm probably not the person to ask.

He has said he will look into that. I'm going to suggest we move forward unless the clerk can advise us whether Ms. Bart's technical issues will imminently be fixed or whether they're having some difficulty. I appreciate everybody's patience.

We have Ms. Bart back. I hope we can hear her.

[Mary Bart]

Okay, I'm still trying. I apologize. I don't know what went wrong. Technology is not my friend today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

That's a little better. I don't know if it's better for everybody else, but maybe the interpreters can advise us as to whether it is good enough.

Can you try a few more sentences, Ms. Bart?

[Mary Bart]

Sure.

I was telling you that my dad and most of my aunts were veterans, and I have an uncle who still lives in the Perley. My aunt lived there until she died. I'm honoured to be part of this meeting today.

Does that help?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I would ask the clerk if he could check with the interpreters as to whether or not that was better.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Benoit Jolicoeur]

Unfortunately, the sound quality is not quite there for the interpreters right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I'm sorry, Ms. Bart. I have to stick with my own expectations as well. I really wish we could have you continue. Maybe we can schedule you for an upcoming meeting, if that would work. I'll check in with the clerk after. If we can't have both languages represented, we can't have you on the meeting, I'm afraid.