So you—
Evidence of meeting #7 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 branches.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #7 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 branches.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:45 p.m.
Bar Manager, Gold River Legion, Royal Canadian Legion
What we do have, we are giving.
4:45 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
I believe that.
I guess the next short question is just how many volunteers you have not seen because of COVID.
4:45 p.m.
Bar Manager, Gold River Legion, Royal Canadian Legion
It's the vast majority. Where we may have had 25 active volunteers before, we now have maybe two or three.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you.
That brings us to the end of round one.
Starting us off in round number two for five minutes, MP Seeback, the floor is yours.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thanks.
Thanks, everyone, for coming to give your testimony today. These are tough, challenging times. I know it's been tough for Legions in my riding. One is in some real difficulty. It spent a lot of money to renovate and make its space a lot nicer for bookings this year, and this summer it took on debt. Of course, all of that revenue has disappeared, so it's at risk of closing.
Mr. Clark, you said that, according to your triage, 159 would close. The funding you're receiving from the government is not going to stave off the closures you mentioned earlier in your testimony, is it?
4:50 p.m.
National Executive Director, Royal Canadian Legion
No, it will not. That's why it's important that we work with our provincial commands, which know first-hand the financial health of every one of the branches, so they can best direct us on which branches need it and which ones, unfortunately, it will not provide assistance for.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Would you hazard a guess as to whether, if the funding you had asked for was delivered, that would have staved off the loss of at least some of these Legions that are going to be forced to close due to their catastrophic loss in revenue?
4:50 p.m.
National Executive Director, Royal Canadian Legion
If it had been provided earlier, it would have.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thank you very much.
I'd like you to speak to what happens in a community when a Legion closes. You've talked about the benefits to community and to veterans, and I think we're not really thinking or talking about the devastating impact that this is going to have on communities. I wonder if you would speak to that. Then also, if a Legion closes, would it ever open up again? I suspect I know the answer to that, unfortunately.
4:50 p.m.
National Executive Director, Royal Canadian Legion
Thank you.
The biggest thing I want to refer to is the Legion's primary goal of assisting veterans and their families. We have approximately 1,400 branches across the country, 1,400 service offices so that if a veteran is in need, they know exactly where to go. They can go to the Legion. They can get immediate emergency financial help. They can get sustained assistance. If a branch isn't there, a link in that chain is gone, so that veteran has to go somewhere else outside of their community, perhaps, especially if it's in a more rural area. We want to make things easy for veterans. They have some difficulties, especially with transition, mental health and other factors. Legion service officers are there to give them the assistance they need, and if branches are not there, that assistance is still available, but it's less convenient for the individual veteran.
There's also the support provided to their families, to local charities, and to local hospitals, and if branches are not there to provide that, where will that funding come from to assist those programs in the community? We do things not because we are looking for any kind of recognition but because we want to be good community partners, and that's why we're there.
Across the country we have had branches close. Could they reopen? They could, but I have not seen it happen. Unfortunately, pretty much when a branch closes in a community, its footprint in that community is gone.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you asked for money in both April and June of this year during COVID. Is that correct?
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
If money had flowed quickly after those requests for funds, I think what you're saying is that for at least some of these 159 Legions that look as though they're going to close, that closure could have been staved off.
4:50 p.m.
National Executive Director, Royal Canadian Legion
Yes, absolutely, because some of those branches have yet to open. It's financially not prudent to do so, or they are not able to do so because they might have a small restaurant with no patio. Therefore, to open up and to provide the funding, and the expenses they would have to incur...it's just not viable for them to do so.
If funding had been provided earlier, there is a possibility, absolutely, that some of these branches would be in a better state today.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Right. I have one final question.
I know that the poppy drive was different this year because of COVID-19. I know that you tried very hard to adapt with Legion masks and other things. I know that I bought a bunch of them. How does it look early on for the receipts from the poppy fund? What is the impact of that going to be?
4:55 p.m.
National Executive Director, Royal Canadian Legion
Early on, it is not looking positive. There are exceptions. Madame Lalonde's riding of Orléans did exceptionally well this year, raising over $100,000, but that's the exception. There are many communities that will not see that level of funding. With the poppy campaign, all the money that is raised stays locally to help local veterans. None of it comes to Dominion Command, so if there is less funding, that means there is less support available for veterans, and that will be devastating.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Those are all my questions.
Thanks very much, everyone, for your time today.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you. You kept it right on time. I appreciate that.
Now I know where all the masks went. We'll have to talk to our friend from Orléans. I had to beg and plead for one of those masks for Remembrance Day. We were finally able to purchase one, but....
Up next, we have MP Samson for five minutes.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, all three of you, for your presentations. It's an extremely important study to better understand what is happening on the ground and how we can continue to help, which is crucial. Legions do such excellent work in communities, and it's so nice to see how effective they are at supporting veterans and their families. I want to thank all of you for that.
I also want to talk about VETS Canada. It's just amazing how you stretch out right across the country and have so many volunteers supporting you. I, as an MP, struggle to understand how effective you people are. For example, you are basically 24-7; you mentioned that in your presentation, Debbie. It's just amazing. When you think that MPs can—and we do, in our office—call VETS Canada for help.... That's how effective you are.
Also, when you think about how over 75% of your work throughout COVID-19—and maybe ongoing, too—is case work from Veterans Affairs.... You are an extremely important organization on the ground, helping right across this country, and I can't thank you enough.
You spoke about how challenging it was financially, about laying off some people who were more administrative than on the ground. I can't thank you enough, as well, for the work that you've been doing on that front.
The $850,000, as you said, might be the most you have gotten, but there are a couple of factors that come into play here: how deep the financial challenge your organization was in, over the last six months, and that you had to use those funds; and then being able to support an increased number of veterans and their families because of COVID-19. Can you talk to us a bit about how you got through it and how this funding will allow you to continue that work?
4:55 p.m.
Chair and Co-founder, VETS Canada
Yes. Thank you for that and for your kind words.
We did get through it. I think it was.... We were very resourceful. We were able to really tap into some of our regular donors who maybe couldn't afford to donate financially but were willing to donate some food or that sort of thing. I mentioned in my presentation that we've always had the luxury of being able to do things outside the box. Well, we weren't able to do those sorts of things. We had to focus specifically on very urgent needs like food and shelter.
The funding will certainly help us to be able to continue doing the work that we do, as well as, hopefully, be able to do some of those “outside the box” things again. We work very well with the case managers at Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs can provide the financial benefits that veterans require, but often their hands are tied because of rules and regulations and legislation, so they will come to us for the things that they can't do when their hands are tied. This money will enable us to do those things that are equally important. It will help us in that way.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Thank you.
Your structure is volunteer based. You said you only have six people under salary, which is amazing.
Through COVID-19, did you feel you were losing some of the volunteers, or was it increasing? How do you foresee the next six months? How do you see things unfolding? We're into a second wave. Do you want to talk to us about the monies you have and how you foresee supporting veterans and their families in the next six months?
5 p.m.
Chair and Co-founder, VETS Canada
With regard to the volunteers, that's certainly been a big impact. Our friends at the Legion said the same thing.
As an example, our Ottawa team has well over 100 volunteers. During COVID, we had less than 10 who were willing to go out and meet veterans face to face. It's had a big impact in that regard.
I have to say, though, a lot of them have missed their volunteer work. We are having a lot of them start to come back and wanting to re-engage. We have more people who are interested in helping—I think people who are still managing to thrive during COVID. We've had some of those people reach out to say they're doing okay so they want to help others, and that kind of thing.
We're hoping that the second wave is not going to be as bad as the first wave. However, in some areas were seeing that it already is. Over the next six months, we'll be day to day, really. We'll see what the future brings for us.