I see that.
Evidence of meeting #31 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 dogs.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #31 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 dogs.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
Certified Trainer, Meliora Service Dogs
May I add something really important, sir?
5:15 p.m.
Certified Trainer, Meliora Service Dogs
In the same idea, if you google the Alberta governmental service dog organization, you see there is one person in Alberta who is connected to a friend who assesses all the dogs of Alberta. There's just one person who decides who gets a service dog card or not. That's not okay either.
June 14th, 2021 / 5:15 p.m.
As an Individual
There's no oversight in Alberta or B.C. over the act and how it's implemented, including the production of IDs and the assessments. There's no oversight at all.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have another brief question for Mr. Lapointe.
We won't let you go.
I want to remind you that I have only two and a half minutes.
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Veterans Affairs Canada funds Wounded Warriors Canada. Since Veterans Affairs Canada doesn't have any standards for training and certification, it seems to rely on Wounded Warriors Canada to do the work.
Do you feel that the department has, in some way, given the task of setting standards to Wounded Warriors Canada because it isn't able to do so on its own?
5:15 p.m.
Certified Trainer, Meliora Service Dogs
Are you talking about Wounded Warriors Canada?
5:15 p.m.
Certified Trainer, Meliora Service Dogs
I personally know the two people running this organization, Scott Maxwell and Phil Ralph. I would tell you to pay close attention. They really like to pretend that they know what they're doing, in order to become more popular with the veterans. However, they don't have any experience. I'm just talking about service dogs. At this time, Wounded Warriors Canada's dogs come from four organizations. We must pay close attention to these organizations because they're very questionable. They work with sub‑organizations in order to collect slightly damaged rescue dogs and give them to veterans. The veterans end up with a dog that has issues, in addition to their own issues. This happens very often. I'm not kidding. I've even seen an organization take a very good service dog away from a veteran and sell it to a civilian. I was there and I witnessed it. I'm telling you, there's a lot going on in this area. It's unbelievable.
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Desilets Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
How do you explain that Veterans Affairs Canada is funding this organization? Is the department aware of this?
5:15 p.m.
Certified Trainer, Meliora Service Dogs
No, I don't think that the department is aware of this. That's politics. You make agreements with people whom you know, and you botch things up. That's how it works. There aren't any reference checks. There isn't any follow up with veterans to see whether their dog is ultimately helping them or whether they would recommend the organization to someone. There isn't any survey to determine what the veterans think. I don't know how many veterans in Canada currently have or have had a service dog. Perhaps a survey should be conducted to find out whether they would recommend that veterans have a service dog and which organization they would recommend and why.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you, Chair.
Ms. Moss, if I could come directly to you, based on the testimony we heard prior to this and to what you said, it sounds like market share and turf issues may have created roadblocks to developing—and I'm going to get this acronym right—CGSB NSCs for service dogs.
Wouldn't this be a common challenge when developing national service standards for Canada when bringing together marketplace competitors? In the process that you're working through, how are you addressing that?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, The Canadian Foundation for Animal-Assisted Support Services
I'm going to take a little step back in time to answer your question, if I may.
This organization exists because of advocacy work in the disability community more than 20 years ago. Because this sector is so fragmented—and it was even more so then—we needed to come up with an impartial organization that would advocate with and for Canadians with disabilities and other stakeholders to make sure that the gaps would be filled and the dots would be connected. Doing that requires bringing all these different stakeholders together, including the service providers, discipline sectors, and so on. It's a huge mandate.
Yes, there's going to be adversity, but we actually work through that. We've done a fair amount of work in terms of consensus-based decision-making and appreciative inquiry to work with all the different interest groups. There is always going to be that adversity, but we also emphasize that this is not an adversarial process.
In other words, our standards, our national standards of Canada, have been published by the Standards Council of Canada. They're on their website. They are ready to proceed to development. I'm actually working on the first technical committee. We've had a phenomenal response from across Canada for people interested in participating on the technical committee.
That's how the process starts. It starts with a technical committee that will vote and will work very diligently on a draft standard. Later on, it will go to public consultation. We'll get feedback, and it will come back to the technical committee. We'll make revisions as necessary. We'll clean up the draft standards, and then it will go to the Standards Council of Canada for their review. If all is good, the Standards Council will publish that national standard.
We are ready to go. We're out of the gate and proceeding to development. The reason we are doing it is that this is exactly the nature of our mandate. We are here to make sure that people don't fall through the cracks, and neither do the animals, and also to make sure that we are able to bring justice into this environment for the sake of the end-users and their animals.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you, Ms. Moss. I'm afraid that's time.
Up next we have MP Davidson for five minutes.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
I think I'm taking that.
Scot, are you good to go, or did you want me to do it? I don't want to take your—
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
