Veterans Affairs Committee on Oct. 27th, 2020

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

Sorry, sir. We have actually expanded access and the authority in the veterans emergency fund during the pandemic, so Steven's staff can now approve up to $10,000 based upon a veteran's need, even before a claim is submitted. It can be up to $10,000 in extenuating circumstances.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you, General.

We will go to MP Carrie for five minutes, please.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I wanted to get back to my previous question on moving the backlog forward. Going back to the PBO report and the idea that even with hiring all these people, the backlog is still going to be significant, has the minister directed you to take certain actions to help expedite the plan to move forward to decrease the backlog? Have you heard anything recently, since the PBO report? Is there any modification that's coming down the pipe to you?

I know it's very difficult, Mr. Harris, to come up with specific numbers, but has the minister's office directed you to allow the plan to be more fluid as we approach a backlog that seems to be magnifying in its size?

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

Sir, thanks very much for the question.

As the minister has said in front of committee when we were there last, other than providing day-to-day life-saving support to our veterans, addressing the wait time for our claims is the number one priority across the department. We have operationalized his intent through the plan as presented to the committee, and we are moving diligently across the board in order to clear that backlog, not only with personnel but also with innovation, with process change, with delegation of authority across the board.

Going back to the point, unlike in 1925, we want to clear and eliminate the backlog now. It's what our veterans deserve, based upon their service and their courage in support of our nation.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

My colleague Mr. Desilets mentioned about pre-approval, and I think Mr. Harris was clear. You mentioned that with the legislation the way it is, there is no mechanism to really go that route, but do you have an estimation of how much it actually costs to process each application? Have we ever looked into the costs of just processing a claim?

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

I'm not aware of that information.

[Steven Harris]

I'm not aware of that information either.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Do you think that's something that would be worthwhile, to see the actual cost of just processing an application and whether there's something that can be done to streamline that?

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

It would be very difficult to do that model, given the overhead and all those kinds of things. I'm just a tanker wearing civilian attire here, so I would have to go back to the specialists to consider that kind of notion, sir.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

On the efficiency side of things, with employees having to work from home, you mentioned that you're basically coming up to a similar timeline for efficiency in processing as before. Have you looked at the option of, in the future, more employees being able to work from home, or is this something that you haven't looked at yet?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

You have just over one minute.

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

Sir, I really appreciate the question because, in fact, I just put out an update—or, as we say in the military, a sitrep—to the employees to say that this is going to be a long haul.

As we watch the news each day, achieving service excellence for our veterans is a key priority, as well as safeguarding their health and safety and improving working productivity. In some areas of this department, we are already seeing better productivity than when we were all in the office together. How can we maximize that so that in the future it's not about the address you work from but how productive you can be in order to achieve our mission to support veterans and families?

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

Go ahead, MP Samson, please.

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

Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you, General, for being here again today. I appreciate the opportunity and, of course, Mr. Harris's presence.

I have a very quick question, because time is a virtue now.

March 10 was an important day. You talked about the plan. You then delivered the plan, and now you're talking about the pieces of the plan. Could you list the specific elements from the plan that do not factor into the PBO's report when he does his calculations? There are pieces that are very important in your plan that he does not, and did not, take into consideration when he wrote his report. I'd appreciate it if you could give us the quick specifics.

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

Thank you, sir. It's great to see you again.

I'll ask Steven to speak to the specifics.

[Steven Harris]

Thank you, and thanks for the question. I can name a few for you offhand, but I won't be able to go through the entire list.

The digitization of the approach for hearing loss, which I spoke of earlier, and putting in an innovative tool to be able to get through it much more quickly by essentially using a digital search function is an example that would not have been in there. The veteran benefit teams would not have been calculated in there either. Our early pilots on that have demonstrated about a 10% increase in productivity.

The work that we're doing to ease the way in which veterans can apply and make that a simple process is not necessarily going to be visible from the output point of view, but it is going to help us by ensuring that we have complete applications coming in. We're working with our health professionals as well to make sure that the doctors and physicians we referred to who have to fill out diagnoses and various assessments for veterans can use a digital system to get us the information much more quickly. It will make the physicians much more efficient in the health care system. It will make the receipt of that input much more efficient as well.

There are all kinds of ideas like this. The way in which we're training our staff and getting them up to speed to be able to make decisions much more quickly is another example. Across all of the domains that we've identified here, there are a number of significant gains that we'll be able to see in terms of our productivity and our flexibility moving forward.

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

That was a very good answer in a very short period of time, so I'm going to try a quick one again.

When you talk about the team, can you quickly explain to the group here what it means and how it makes the process go much faster? Who are the team members?

[Steven Harris]

It's everybody who would be involved in making a decision. It's the intake officers, the people who work on pay to ultimately pay out a file, the people who work as benefits program officers and a nurse adjudicator for a medical reference. It's everybody who might be involved in making a claim, either simple or complex, being able to work together so that the file doesn't go through any kind of physical or digital process of being handed off. That's where some delays can happen, when something goes from one person to another. Having everybody work together as a team is the easiest way of keeping everything in line, keeping everybody focused on making a decision on particular files and moving them forward from that point of view. It's bringing all of the expertise together to be able to make decisions as rapidly as possible.

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

I want to thank you again, because that allows us to see that the file is not being dropped. Everybody can play a role and get the answers right away by sitting around the same table and making this happen very quickly.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much, MP Samson. You have about a minute and a half left. Do you want to use it, or are we done?

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Mr. Seeback may want some of his time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Well, we're actually right up against it, so if he doesn't want it, I think we'll call it.

I want to thank the general and Mr. Harris for joining us today. This is a very, very important study, and I know it's one that has been on our minds for a very long time because of COVID, so I thank you both for joining us today and getting us back on track, and I think in the right way.

It being 5:30, I will move to adjourn our meeting. Thank you very much, everybody, for joining us. I had a few muting problems, but I'll try to get better at that moving forward.

Thanks to all the technicians and the folks who helped make this possible. Thank you very much, everybody.

[Gen (Ret'd) Walter Natynczyk]

Mr. Chair, thank you and the members of your committee for the great support to our veterans and serving members of the armed forces and the RCMP.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you. Goodbye, everybody.

The meeting is adjourned.