Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 16th, 2020

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Okay. It sounds like some changes have been in the adjudication area that are leading to improvements. That's wonderful to hear.

Chair, I'll be sharing some of my time with MP Lalonde. I will move quickly to one other line of questioning before I yield the floor to her.

Christopher McNeil, it's nice to see a familiar face from home and nice to have you back at committee. I'd like to hear your response to some of the suggestions we've heard regarding the idea that VAC could use pre-approved claims that are related to common health issues experienced by veterans. If you want to weigh in on whether they should all be pre-approved, that's fine, but I'm kind of more interested in exploring whether it's a good idea and which conditions or health issues would be candidates for that kind of pre-approval. Would it create a two-tiered experience for veterans? Is this a fraught idea or is it a good idea? What are the issues surrounding it?

[Christopher McNeil]

Obviously, when you ask an adjudicator if anything should be pre-approved, of course they think that's not...but it's not a question of everything. This system is not built on every injury being compensable. An injury occurring on vacation isn't necessarily related to service.

I do think we are emerging. VAC has invested a significant amount of resources in fast-tracking complaints. The one that I think is most relevant is hearing loss. VAC is approving probably somewhere in the vicinity of 80%. Our experience recently is that we're probably taking it to where in excess of 90% of the claims that come forward for hearing loss are being approved, particularly if somebody demonstrates a diagnosis that at least in part is attributable to noise. Nobody's post-service work compares to that noise.

In those cases, that's a public policy decision. You could say that if a veteran comes forward today and demonstrates a noise-induced hearing loss, you could grant that. For the small percentage that might get caught in the loop, it's a public policy question. There is probably merit in certain types of claims and approving those. If you took hearing loss out of the system, it would open up capacity for others, but hearing loss is the one that our experience would say we're getting to a point, if we're approving 95%-plus, where we could probably do a cost-benefit analysis that says pre-approval might be the way to go on hearing loss.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Okay. That's very helpful. It's nice to see you, Chris, and thank you for that.

[Christopher McNeil]

Thank you.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

I'll now yield the floor to MP Lalonde.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I'm going to suggest that MP Lalonde keep her question. She has about 10 seconds.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Oh dear, my apologies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

She will get an opportunity. I see her on the list here after a few questions.

If it's okay with you, I'll move on to MP Desilets, please, for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Mr. McNeil or Mr. Bouchard, to whom I give my regards.

There's a large concentration of employees in Charlottetown. In Quebec, the processing time for francophone applications is much longer than for anglophone applications. We're talking about a processing time of 24 to 45 weeks for francophone applications.

In the past, this issue has been the subject of a political debate. Would it be possible to decentralize the services by creating an office in Montreal or Quebec City? Many veterans live in Quebec City. This would make it possible to have employees, possibly veterans, who can work in French. This would help reduce the unacceptable processing time.

[Jacques Bouchard]

Thank you for your question, Mr. Desilets. It's good to see you again.

I'm probably not in the best position to answer your question. It should be addressed to the minister. Indeed, many French-speaking veterans are available in the Quebec City area. A number of our clients live in that region.

The Veterans Review and Appeal Board isn't facing the same challenges. We recently hired seven new people, six of whom are bilingual. We're very focused on this issue as well. The same is true for the members. We expect to have a few new members in the coming months. I hope that a number of them will also be bilingual.

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

Okay. Thank you.

You said that six of the seven employees are bilingual.

Is that right?

[Jacques Bouchard]

Yes, six of our seven new employees.

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

Okay.

Are they all working for the board in Charlottetown?

[Jacques Bouchard]

Yes. All board staff work at the head office in Charlottetown. Our members are located across the country.

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

Okay.

I don't know whether Mr. Sauvé agrees with the idea of decentralizing services and simply having offices in places where francophones live. This should be beneficial in terms of employability.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

That's time, but I'll allow for a brief answer, please.

[Brian Sauvé]

I think having services where they are needed is a very good thing. If that means decentralization, it means decentralization.

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

You got the picture.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

Now we go over to MP Blaney for two and a half minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Heilman, I'll ask you a question. First of all, I want to thank you for your service and thank you for sharing the skin that you have in the game. I really appreciate the hard work that you're doing, and I know that it obviously matters a lot to you.

Especially in our last testimony, we heard the former military ombudsman talk a lot about having more responsibility given to CAF to diagnose, tell people where they are and then pass that on to VAC, and just have VAC be more of the implementation branch of this process. We know that so many people are getting held up in that transition between the medical records process.... I appreciate the work that you're all doing on fixing that. Then we could allow VAC to implement that process but then also do any follow-up on injuries that may come at a later time, because we know that some folks walk out the door of CAF and then several years later find out that there's something else that is a challenge for them.

I'm just wondering if you've heard about what the former military ombudsman said, and if you have any thoughts on whether that process would actually work and help us streamline this process so that our veterans get the support they need in a more timely manner.

[Brock Heilman]

I'm assuming you're speaking about Mr. Walbourne.

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

Yes, I am.

[Brock Heilman]

Mr. Walbourne and I met when I first took over the job. I had several ideas about how I wanted to act, but I had files transferred to VAC so I did work quite closely with him. We met just one on one and shared some of our ideas. What I'm seeing today is some of those ideas for expeditious file transfers come to fruition. Specifically, the grand vision we had was to get the electronic health record directly into the hands of Veterans Affairs. I'm happy to say that we have started that and it has proven to be successful, and we have been able to give Veterans Affairs direct access to the health record.

I will tell you that the surgeon general, Major-General Bilodeau, and the commander, Admiral Patterson, are both very close to their friends in Veterans Affairs. They're dedicated to closing the seam and working collegially with VAC to expedite this file transfer and get it going as quickly as we possibly can.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank very much, sir.

We will go to MP Wagantall for five minutes.

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

Thank you.

First of all, very quickly, Mr. Heilman, thank you for what you're doing. This has been a long time in coming, as you are aware. This term “closing the seam” has been part of the conversations at this committee since 2016.

You've mentioned a couple of times things around the electronic records that you're getting to VAC now. However, you say when “VAC requests” and “when the member requests”.

In looking at this down the road and with the potential for more cases out of COVID, we want to be ahead of the game. Is there not a way for the Canadian Armed Forces to create a form right now that goes out to every member and tells them that to expedite their case, if and when it would be needed, please sign here that they recognize that their files will be available at VAC immediately, and that by signing this they are agreeing to have those files transferred to VAC?

Would that not work? Please answer yes, no or give a quick explanation of why.