Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 23rd, 2020

[Debbie Lowther]

Yes. That's something that I think all non-profits deal with, always wondering where the next paycheque's going to come from, so to speak. That is a constant concern for us, especially.... As grateful as we are to have this funding, it is for a period of one year. Beyond that, we don't know.

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

Right.

I really appreciate the work you do and I truly believe the best way for the government to be effective is to fund organizations like the Legion and like yours that are hands on and that really do know the circumstances and that can deal with them quickly.

Thank you so much, Chair.

[Debbie Lowther]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

For five minutes, MP Fillmore, go ahead, please.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Thanks very much, Chair.

Thanks, witnesses, not only for your remarkable work on behalf of Canada's veterans community but also for being here today. We're all very grateful for that.

I have to say that it's always nice to see a familiar face from home.

Deb, welcome and thanks for joining us. I'm going to direct my questions to you. As you know, I have become quite familiar with the work of VETS Canada, having visited you and Jim over at the headquarters here at home on a number of occasions and having participated in your boots on the ground initiative to help locate and assist homeless veterans.

With that familiarity, I would like to start with a profound and heartfelt thanks to you and Jim and the whole VETS Canada family, if I can call it that, across the country. The work you do and what you achieve really is remarkable. I'd like to, if I could, dig into the VETS Canada experience since March of this year. You said that donations are down by 41%. That's a heartbreaking statistic. At the same time, demand is up by 36%. That's some very difficult math to reconcile. I'll make three points and then I'll stop talking and you can take the rest of the time just to fill it in.

I wonder if you could share with the committee how it is that you've been able to continue to serve veterans through the pandemic. Second, can you include specifically any federal assistance that's been helpful? You mentioned already the veterans emergency fund, but have any of the COVID funds like the wage subsidy or anything like that been helpful? Third, what else do you need? That's what I'd like to hear. Really, I'm asking this question because I want to underscore to the committee and to people who are listening how important it is that organizations like yours get the support they need to continue doing the work that they do.

The floor is yours. Take as much time within my five minutes as you want. .

Thanks, Deb. It's really nice to see you.

[Debbie Lowther]

It's nice to see you too, and thank you for your kind words.

With regard to some of the available federal funding, yes, we have been able to benefit from the emergency wage subsidy. We did receive some funding from the emergency community support fund that was administered through the United Way, specifically here in Nova Scotia.

Unfortunately, the way the fund worked is that you had to apply to the United Way, and there's not just one United Way; there's one in every city across the country. That meant many applications for us, and as I keep saying, we're a very small staff. We don't have people to be doing all these applications, so we decided to do applications in just the locations where we had drop-ins. Unfortunately, the application process in Edmonton had already closed, and so we ended up applying only here in Nova Scotia, but we did receive just over $25,000 from that fund. Those two have definitely benefited us throughout the pandemic.

With regard to what we need, it always comes down to money. I know I keep talking about the staff. As I mentioned in my statement, I don't take a paycheque. My husband and I founded this organization, and neither of us takes a paycheque. I work about 60 hours a week without a paycheque. I'm not saying that because I want a paycheque, because I don't, but if something were to happen to me, and the organization needed to hire an executive director, where would that money come from? People don't like to think of their money going towards administrative things, but we have to have them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

You have about 30 seconds.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Quickly, are you undertaking any efforts to find new sources of revenue? We're all hearing about pivots now. Have you discovered anything that's working differently or better for you in the pandemic?

[Debbie Lowther]

I shouldn't say we're not looking; we're always looking for different sources of revenue. We have a couple of volunteers focusing on that right now, looking at some larger corporate donations, which we're hoping will be successful.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Thank you so much for being here and for all your work. We will see you soon, I'm sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you, MP Fillmore, for keeping on time.

That brings us to the end of the second round, folks. As I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, we have a hard stop at 5:30 unless there is any absolute 100% must-need-to-ask questions. I know we wanted to leave a few minutes at the end for discussion on timing for this committee.

Seeing no hands go up really quickly, I will simply thank all of the witnesses for appearing here today. I really do appreciate it.

MP Desilets, are you saying thank you, or are you saying you need—

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

I'd simply like to take 30 seconds to thank our guests.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I'm going to need at least five minutes at the end here, guys, just to bring everybody up to speed on what's going on with this timing, but if there is a desperate need for a 30-second question, and a 30-second answer from the witnesses, I think we can afford that.

MP Desilets, if you want to kick us off—and I see MP Carrie also has a 30-second question.

Go ahead very quickly, Monsieur Desilets.

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

I can put it in question form. Once again I'm impressed by the quality of our guests today. I thank them very much.

As I'm being told to ask a question, I'd say that my question is, what are your needs? Feel free to let us know. We won't have instant solutions as you would prefer, but please let us know what you need.

I thank you, and I also thank the legions in my region very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you. I think that was more of a comment than a question, but that's great.

I will go on to MP Carrie.

If you can stick to 30 seconds, that would be great, sir.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I'll go as quickly as I can.

I was really concerned to hear about the number of Legions at risk—I think the numbers are about a third.

My question is for Steve.

With regard to the service officers at the Legions, we know that VAC employees are working at home. I know that a lot of veterans need people on the ground. I am wondering if you've heard about the workload on them. What effect have these Veterans Affairs office closures, and perhaps the inability to talk to somebody, done to the workloads of the service officers?

[Steven Clark]

There hasn't been additional workload put onto the service officers. We've sustained the same level we had been providing on a remote basis, but the fact that we are still able to reach out to VAC staff for referrals in situations has been very helpful. All of our service officers across the country are continuing to provide the service that veterans need.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Carrie. That was a very valuable question, and I'm glad we got that in.

I want to thank all of you for being here today.

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

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair; I have a request.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Sure.

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

Mr. Clark mentioned that he's going to be providing a list to Veterans Affairs Canada about the funding for the Legions. I'm wondering if he could table that list with the committee when it's completed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Mr. Clark.

[Steven Clark]

Absolutely. We are going to be completely transparent and accountable, and I'm happy to do that.

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

Thank you, sir.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

I will allow the witnesses to leave now. I want to thank them all for attending and helping us with this study. As has been said many times over the last two hours, it is vitally important that we make sure these cornerstone organizations across the country continue not just to survive but thrive.

Thank you for helping us in that regard. Thank you very much, folks.

For members of the committee, I'll get you to hold on for a few minutes here and we'll give you a quick update on the timing of these meetings.

We are still public, so just keep that in mind.

We had a conversation at the end of the last meeting about our ability to go longer and getting as much time as possible for these witnesses. I had the opportunity to chat with a number of parties to find out the story about whether or not we can extend these meetings if we're interrupted by votes, as we were today.

All committee dates are not created equal is what I've discovered.

Basically, the bottom line is that on Mondays, we have a hard stop at 5:30. The reason is that we have a meeting after us at 6:30, and the folks need to get in to clean the room an hour before the meeting comes in. For example, today we have a justice committee meeting at 6:30, in the same room that you're in, Mr. Brassard, so the technicians and all of the clerk staff need to get in. They will be new people who will be switching out, so they have to clean the space in order to do that.

On Wednesdays, we have a little more wiggle room. For example, if we don't get the meeting started until 4:30, we can go to 6:30. It's not ideal, but it is doable. We can capture the whole two hours for our committee, but it is a fairly hard stop at 6:30. We run into some technical issues with regard to timing for interpretation and things such as that.

So on Wednesdays we have a little bit more latitude, and on Mondays we do not. This is par for the course, unfortunately, for this time slot, whether we're involved in a hybrid version of Parliament or not. Those who have been around for a while know that Mondays and Wednesdays are often interrupted by votes.

That is the situation. I wonder if anybody has any questions.

MP Brassard, I believe you had a question.