Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2024

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

Well, Minister, the question is relevant to veterans and to the department, because this is a veteran whom the department is supposed to represent who was violently attacked. I'm asking the minister a relevant question about whether she will support the commonsensical proposal of Pierre Poilievre to ensure that it's jail and not bail for repeat violent offenders so that we can protect veterans and all Canadians.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Excuse me, Mr. Richards, but as I said at the beginning, I know that the minister is there and people are accompanying her too, but I don't think talking about party policy is relevant to the budget that we are discussing.

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

Let's let the minister answer if she'd like, unless she'd like to evade the question as well.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

That's not how this works, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Mr. Richards, would you please try to present your question in another way? You have one minute left, and leave the time also for the minister to answer. Please.

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

As I said, it is the department's responsibility to ensure that veterans are taken care of, that we are there to provide services, but also that we're there to take care of any of the issues veterans have in terms of the services and support they need. This is an area where the government is failing our veterans and all Canadians, so I believe that the minister should step up and answer the question.

Will she support the proposal to ensure jail, not bail, for repeat violent offenders, so that people like 82-year-old veteran Jim DeMarce can be protected within this country from violent offenders?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Mr. Richards, I'm so sorry. I think that we are still on the same page, so if you don't have any other questions, I think we'll go to another—

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

No, Chair, I think you should ask the minister to respond to the question. This is a relevant question. Veterans will be incredibly disappointed if the minister doesn't respond to this question.

Minister, I ask you to please answer the question so that veterans can hear where you stand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Mr. Richards, as I said, we are discussing budget, and you're talking about policy.

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

Okay, well, this is a minister who professes to be more than a part-time minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

No, listen—

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

I think she's just proven that all she is here is a part-time minister. She won't even respond to a relevant question about the safety and security of our veterans.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Okay, Mr. Richards, you're still on the same page, and I'm not going to give the floor to the minister to answer that question.

For now, we're going to go for six minutes to Mr. Miao.

It's your turn, please.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's great to see you back here, Minister. It's always a pleasure seeing you at our committee.

Through you, Mr. Chair, I'm quite proud of the fact that my home province of British Columbia will be hosting the 2025 Invictus Games for the world and allowing us to watch veterans and members of the armed forces compete in the games.

Two weeks ago, Vancouver hosted the Grey Cup, and I was honoured to present the Jake Gaudaur Veterans' Award to Jorgen Hus of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Throughout the Canadian Football League season, Jorgen best demonstrated the attributes of Canada's veterans, and the Invictus Games use the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding of, and respect for, wounded, injured and sick service members and veterans.

Can you share with this committee your hopes for what the 2025 Invictus Games will accomplish?

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

Well, thank you so much, MP Miao, for that question.

Again, Canada should be very proud that next year, in 2025, we'll be hosting the 2025 winter Invictus Games. As a country, we are very privileged that we've been chosen a second time to host these games.

The unique part about these games this time is that it's the first time we'll be hosting winter games—hybrid games, if you will—with outdoor activities like the skeleton in Whistler, and other outdoor sports. Also, we'll be hosting the traditional sports as well, which will be held inside in Vancouver. Canada will have more than 530 competitors, representing 20 nations, in our country to compete.

I truly hope that Canadians will take the time to watch these sporting events, because to me they truly show the resilience, the tenacity and the endurance that our veterans have. It's an opportunity for them to get better through sports. I had the privilege of joining a team in Düsseldorf in Germany last year when they competed, and I have to say that it was life-changing to see these individuals, these athletes, these competitors really give it their all.

I'm looking forward to being there, and I'm certainly hoping that many of our committee members will be able to take part to witness it, either in person or on TV, because it certainly will be a show to watch.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you for that.

Earlier this year, we heard that there were some issues with insurance for the participants. You committed to rectifying this. Can you provide us with the latest update?

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

Yes, I can, absolutely.

The situation with respect to the lack of insurance came up this year, and going forward we wanted to ensure that insurance coverage would be made available for our athletes. Some folks on the committee actually brought that matter up—Ms. Blaney, I believe it was.

I'm happy to report that the insurance coverage for our 2025 athletes is certainly going to be in place. Our officials will be meeting with the athletes in January at their winter training camp in order to ensure that they're properly advised of this insurance and what it entails.

From there, Veterans Affairs Canada has assigned a case manager to the team because we also want to make sure a follow-up will be done three weeks after the game, three months after the game, six months after the game and a year after the game. This is a matter we take very seriously.

Again, we want to ensure our athletes have access to the coverage they deserve.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Minister, since you were last here at the committee, our nation and Canadians from coast to coast to coast marked Veterans' Week and Remembrance Day. I know you were visiting communities across Canada during that time frame. Could you tell us about some of these engagements and what you have learned from those experiences?

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

Thank you so much for that.

As it was for many of you around the table, Veterans' Week was a very busy week for me. I'm sure many of you attended many events in your ridings or perhaps in other parts of the province or the country.

We embarked on a coast-to-coast tour, if you will, making sure that we weren't only here in the nation's capital. We went into small rural communities as we went to the bigger city events. We wanted to make sure we were seen and that we took part in these many events.

I have to say that the highlights for me were probably meeting with the many children who were at the events as well. I think it's truly important to make sure that we have ambassadors, that they don't forget our past and that they will continue to share these stories of these brave men and women who have served.

I also had the privilege of meeting with many veterans, either modern-day veterans or more senior veterans. Again, I was able to share and to hear many of their stories.

I also had an opportunity to meet with General Rohmer in Toronto. I had the honour of meeting him back at the 80th anniversary, and I certainly wanted to go and say hi to him. He was in fine form and talking to me about his plans for the year ahead.

Overall, we participated in some really great events. We attended events in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and British Columbia. We really wanted to make sure there was a good representation and that we were able to participate in different types of events.

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you for sharing that with us.

We recently had a representative from the aboriginal First Nations Veterans Council as part of our ongoing study, and they mentioned their letter of understanding with Veterans Affairs. Could you tell us the benefits that have been realized as a result of this collaborative approach with aboriginal first nations?

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

Are we talking about the letter of understanding with the AFN? Is that the one?

[Wilson Miao, Liberal, Richmond Centre, BC]

Yes.

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

Okay.

My predecessor, former minister MacAuley, was able to sign a letter of understanding with the AFN. I believe it was in 2023 or thereabouts. It was before I arrived.

The letter of intent really had four pillars. Number one is that we want to make sure that we assess and expand the outreach activities to include first nations people as well. We also want to ensure that we establish clear points of contact between indigenous veterans and Veterans Affairs Canada. As such, we have engagement teams that have been put in place to make sure that this work continues.

We also agreed that we want to have greater representation when it comes to commemorative types of events, making sure that indigenous veterans are always included in those events. Finally, we want to make sure we support historical records of indigenous veterans.

Very quickly, that's a bit of the overview of the letter of intent, and I look forward to working with the AFN.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much.

I now invite the committee's second vice-chair, Luc Desilets, to take the floor for the next six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Hello to all my colleagues.

Thanks to our esteemed guests.

Minister, I have a very specific question for you. You probably will not have an answer, but I would hope that a bit of research could be done on it.

We are talking about money. The Department of Veterans Affairs contributed $3 million to a project that is part of the Highway of Heroes, for which total funding comes to $10 million. I don't know whether that means anything to you. Mr. Harris seems to know a bit about what this is regarding, at least.

The project includes the installation of two identical commemorative sculptures in two roadside rest areas. It was completed almost two years ago. I have personally received complaints about this from two veterans. The sculptures are meant to honour 67 people for their ultimate sacrifice. We are well aware of what that expression means. The problem is this: of the 67 people whose profiles appear on the two sculptures, only 20 died in service; four were never in uniform, and 12 are still living and in good health.

You all know Captain (retired) Hélène Le Scelleur. Her name is there. Her profile is part of the sculpture. She called me about this. She told me she was obviously not dead and that she was alive and well. I also spoke with her this morning.

Also on this sculpture, which, I reiterate, honours men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice, is the name of Roméo Dallaire, whom we here all know. There are also the names of francophones who are still alive and well, such as Guylaine Lamoureux, Natacha Dupuis and Vivian Jean Baptiste.

So there are 67 names on these sculptures that, I reiterate, honour men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. Obviously, this creates a bit of a problem.

I don't know whether one of you is able to give me any information about this.