Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 18th, 2020

[Chad Wagner]

I had put it up because it was getting in my way.

We're definitely not going to see a decrease in the number of claims coming through, but what we will see is the instantaneous applications being approved. If the Department of National Defence is very clear in its paperwork that they have an injury due to service—whether it's the VSA or the CM or whoever—they can just look at that and say, “Yes, okay. It matches our check box. Let's pass it. Let's make the claim.” Why does it have to go through the adjudication process?

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

Great.

[Chad Wagner]

You have to read through all the medical records. Those medical records can be 18 volumes long, and it takes an hour per volume.

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

I have a question on that as well, sir. Sorry, I have so many.

[Chad Wagner]

Yes.

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

We were informed by Mr. Heilman, the chief informatics officer with the Canadian Armed Forces health information system, that they're working on this improvement, getting medical records to VAC. They say that when they request them, and when the individual armed forces member requests them, would it not be much faster if they just immediately filled out a form that said, “When needed, my medical records are available to VAC”? Are adjudicators and service officers able to see those records directly, or how do you get them?

[Chad Wagner]

We don't get them until we get approval from the veteran to have access. Then we have to apply for access, and then Veterans Affairs will.... It takes about a week before we usually see them. Going back to what Ms. Vaillancourt was saying, there should be one system for all of this. Why do we have so many different systems where we have to go to get medical records over here, ask permission, come over here...? It just doesn't make sense when it could be just one system. Clear it all out. It should almost be streamlined as soon as they sign up for service, that their Veterans Affairs medical file is always working and always a cohesive unit. It doesn't make sense that it isn't.

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

Accessible.

[Chad Wagner]

Accessible, yes.

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

I understand that there are only six adjudicators in Charlottetown right now who have that access. They have been trained. I asked how long it took and they said it was just a couple of days. I don't know who in this group would know about those adjudicators and why there are only six at this point. This medical record transfer issue has been an issue since 2016. Why are we only at six adjudicators?

[Raymond McInnis]

It's actually a pilot study, and it's not a transfer of records. It's actually having Veterans Affairs link into the Canadian Forces health information system, so it's direct. Eventually, hopefully, that will be the way to go, but I will clarify one thing my colleague said—

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

Okay.

[Raymond McInnis]

—about service health records. It's not a week we're waiting; we're waiting for nine months to more than a year, in some cases, because still-serving members, of course, have to have their files transferred, and there's no one working on the bases and wings right now, because they're all working remotely.

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

Perfect. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

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

Can I have one more very quick question, sir?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I'll give you 10 seconds.

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

Mr. Maxwell, I hear you speak of getting emergency aid to veterans within 24 hours. Veterans Affairs Canada do the same. They were given 64 veterans to deal with, because the emergency fund was too slow initially.

Is that the best use of those funds, to have to work through the systems of VAC to get it? Would it not be better to have those funds available to organizations such as yours?

Yes or no.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Please give a very brief answer.

[Scott Maxwell]

Yes.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

That's a good, brief answer. Thank you.

Up next for five minutes is MP Samson.

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

Thank you, Chair, and all of the presenters today. Very important information has been shared with the committee, and I appreciate the opportunity to listen to your information and to read up on some of the bigger reports.

I'd like to start with a question for Madame Vaillancourt. In June 2020, VAC established an integrated team to break down silos, to eliminate inefficient file hand-offs, to improve the quality of decision-making, etc.

Have you had any feedback from your union members about the impact of these changes?

[Virginia Vaillancourt]

No, I haven't as yet, and I'm still waiting for information from the department in regard to those.

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

These teams were put in place in June. You've had no feedback whatsoever when you have asked your members. I understood you asked your members again in September and October what was happening on the ground.