Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2024

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

—and I think what you should be doing here is holding this member to the same standard that you held me to, because, frankly, the questions had nothing to do with the minister as an individual. It had to do with the role and the responsibility of the minister.

If someone slandering other individuals, I think you should rule that question out of order, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you for your intervention, Mr. Richards, but I think you do remember that when I made the ruling on your question, it was not about how many files the minister has, and you also have one colleague of yours who asked questions about that, and I didn't rule.

We can understand that people can ask questions about how many files she has, so this is not.... Sorry, this is not a point of order.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Chair, the question had nothing to do with her files. It had to do with trying to slander other individuals. I think your bias needs to stop showing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Okay, but I already made the ruling on that.

Now we have one minute and a half left. I'd like to listen to the answer from Minister Petitpas Taylor.

Please go ahead, Minister.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Again, no, I have never been asked that question by any other member, actually, Mr. Sarai.

I'm a bit surprised to hear this type of questioning today when I'm here for the supplementary estimates (B). We're here to talk about benefits and supports to veterans, and I would hope that the members of the committee would be focusing on that and not make partisan attacks.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you, Minister.

Lastly, can you update the committee on your government's veterans employment strategy and how we can continue supporting CAF members when they're preparing for their next chapter?

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Yes. Actually, it kind of folds well with ESDC right now as well, because when it comes to veterans' employment, when we talk about employment workforce, both departments certainly go hand in hand in a lot of ways.

Just this year, we launched the veterans employment strategy. We're working with veterans and making sure they can find meaningful employment. We are also making sure that we are working with employers so that they are aware that, as you know, in any given year we have approximately 8,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces who are retiring. These are skilled, qualified and able individuals, and many of them want to start another career. We're working with that pool of individuals as well.

Finally, we're working with many other organizations that provide services to veterans. I'm really excited with the work that's being done there. We just launched it this year. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, but the feedback I've received from veterans so far has been very positive.

As well, the department has also started a LinkedIn app—I don't know what the word is—

[A voice]

Account.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Thank you.

It's an account, if you will, for veterans. Again, it has served as a very useful tool to our veterans as well.

We continue to try to improve the services and benefits, and making sure that veterans are meaningfully employed and not underemployed is a priority of mine. Again, we'll continue to work in that vein.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Minister.

I know that Mr. Harris and Mr. Freeman will be staying with us for the next hour of the meeting.

Minister, I have to say I was very pleased to see the appointment of the members of the women veterans advisory group. That was one of the 42 recommendations made by the committee in its report titled, "Invisible No More. The Experiences of Canadian Women Veterans", on completion of its study of this subject. We hope that more of the committee's recommendations will soon be implemented by the department.

Thank you again for being here at the committee, Minister.

We are going to take a break for a few minutes and then we will continue the meeting with the officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Resuming the meeting.

I would like to welcome the new witnesses, who are joining us by videoconference. With us are Amy Meunier, assistant deputy minister, commemoration and public affairs branch, and Pierre Tessier, assistant deputy minister, chief financial officer and corporate services branch.

With us still is Jonathan Adams, director general, finance, who is participating in the meeting by videoconference. He was with us during the first part of the meeting, as were Steven Harris, senior assistant deputy minister, service delivery branch, and Mitch Freeman, acting assistant deputy minister, strategic policy, planning and performance branch.

Given that there will be no opening remarks, we will go immediately to the question period. I will take this opportunity to warn committee members that the meeting will go on until 5:35 p.m.

To begin, I invite Mr. Richards, who is attending the meeting by videoconference, to take the floor.

Mr. Blake Richards, go ahead for six minutes, please.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Thank you all for joining us today.

I have a number of things I'd like to ask you about.

I'd like to start with the fact that you now have a part-time minister for the department.

Can you tell us how that's going to impact the senior leadership within the department, and the roles, responsibilities and duties of the senior leadership, when you're dealing with a part-time minister?

[Steven Harris]

I'm happy to take that question.

We continue to work with the minister and her office to make sure that any support we need from the minister and the minister's office is available when we need it. We continue to brief the minister on key files, and she continues to make herself available for us to do so. From our perspective, we continue to work as we did previously.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Does this mean you're saying the minister is so uninvolved in the running of the department that her presence—or, in this case, lack of—won't have any major impact on the operation of the department?

[Steven Harris]

I don't think that's what I said at all.

I just said that when there is a requirement for the minister to be briefed.... As I think the chair and members know, there are a number of documents, approaches and other things that require the minister's support and signature, whether those are Treasury Board submissions, budget submissions or any number of things the minister is involved in from a decision-making point of view. We continue to brief the minister on the ongoing work of the department in areas of importance for veterans and others.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Thank you.

I'd like to return to a question we asked one of the officials in the department a couple of weeks ago, when they were at the committee as part of our ongoing study about Black and indigenous veterans.

At that time, I asked whether indigenous veterans who receive benefits from Indigenous Services Canada would have those benefits counted as income as part of income testing and therefore potentially have any of their VAC entitlements lowered. We received a commitment to have an answer provided to the committee. No answer has been forthcoming yet.

Do you have an answer to that question now?

[Steven Harris]

We'll make sure the answer is provided to the committee chair, but I can confirm for you that no one would be affected regarding the indigenous benefit you referenced in the earlier meeting.

Mr. Chair, we've gone back and looked at it. It's not one of the things offset for income from a Veterans Affairs point of view. In fact, I believe the benefit being referred to, from the indigenous point of view, is really only available for individuals who are in very dire need and circumstances—in other words, have a very low income.

Indigenous veterans who are with Veterans Affairs tend to have income supports that would probably make it impossible for them to get the benefit in the first place, because they're being funded at a higher level.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Okay.

However, could you go and confirm that about all of the various benefits? Could we ask that you provide this to the committee before the House rises for the recess in December?

[Steven Harris]

We'll certainly endeavour to do so. If it's for the benefit you raised the other day, that's no problem. We will make sure we get that for you. If there are other benefits you are referencing now, we would have to look at what the other ones are.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Okay. That's fair enough.

I want to ask you as well about the $250 cheque the government is going to be sending out this spring.

My understanding is that it will be counted as income, which would mean it will be calculated as part of income testing for veterans programs.

Is there a possibility that a veteran who receives this cheque could then find they've crossed the income threshold for certain benefits through VAC, such as for diminished earning capacity? Could they then potentially lose benefits, or have them lowered, as a result?

[Steven Harris]

Mr. Chair, I've not seen any legislation around that particular payment or benefit at this time. I'd have to wait to see what the legislation looks like and how that is defined before we could make any assessment on what that would look like.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Could you commit to providing us with a response to that in writing as well?

[Steven Harris]

Mr. Chair, I don't have any legislation to go on to be able to look at it at this point in time. I'd have to wait until such time as there's formal legislation in place, or even proposed legislation, to be able to verify whether there's an impact somewhere else.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

All right. When you do have that available to you, would you commit to providing us with a response?

[Steven Harris]

Certainly. Yes.