Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 12th, 2024

[Meriem Benlamri]

Yes, for sure. I can speak to one example of a project we conducted in this fashion, which was about resources we developed related to military sexual trauma. We brought together a group of folks who either had experienced military sexual trauma themselves or were service providers providing care for those who had experienced military sexual trauma. We had the intention of creating informational resources around the topic, but we let them lead the way in telling us what exactly it was about military sexual trauma that the community wanted to learn more about.

That's one way we engage folks to make sure the content we cover through our resources is going to be relevant. They support us in identifying the subtopics that will go into the resources and how to disseminate the resources once they're ready so they can reach the people who need to see them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much.

Now we'll to have the last two interventions of five minutes each, one from Mrs. Wagantall and the other one from Mr. Casey.

Mrs. Wagantall, you have five minutes.

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

Thank you so much, Chair.

Thank you again for being here with us today.

I'd like to follow up, MaryAnn, on your comments about funding. You indicated that you had some public partners and you specifically mentioned the Canadian institute for public safety. Is that what it was called?

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

It's the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment.

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

Okay. When did you do research with them? In what year was it?

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

We wrapped up a project with them. I may have to follow up on details.

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

I just need the date.

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

We partner in ongoing and different ways, but I believe our peer support community network, the portion that was funded, has wrapped up or is wrapping up.

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

What was the study on?

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

It wasn't a research study. It was related to convening a group with military personnel, veterans, public safety personnel, families and the peer support community and bringing together a community network with the purpose of creating some best practice guidelines for peer support within those groups. Those will be launching soon.

[Meriem Benlamri]

I can speak to another partnership with that group. In 2022, we also partnered with them to develop knowledge products specifically for public safety personnel on post-traumatic stress injuries. That was in 2022.

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

That was done with a grant through the Medavie Foundation. It was a small time-limited grant.

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

It was not focused on the Canadian Armed Forces. It was for other service members.

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

It was also for the Canadian Armed Forces.

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

Okay. That was 2022.

You also mentioned Health Canada.

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

No, I was giving an example of funding. It was a Public Health Agency of Canada grant that CIPSRT and Atlas were doing work connected to, but I think our funding flowed through CIPSRT.

You'll have to forgive me if I'm not up on the details. I can always follow up with you.

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

That's fine. Thank you. I appreciate that.

I have other questions that I would like to direct to the Last Post Fund.

The minister has indicated that she needed to do a feasibility study, and we're not sure where that's at right now. Is that something you would take on? I need just a yes or no.

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

A feasibility study...?

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

It's in regard to whether or not the government should take over the responsibility for funding the National Field of Honour. The Last Post Fund is asking for assistance from the government to stay afloat.

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

Without having much context or time to think about it, that work sounds like it would be out of scope. It sounds more like program evaluation work or a feasibility study with respect to whether the government funds something. I think it would conflict with our arm's-length relationship with Veterans Affairs Canada.

Again, it's something I'm responding to for the first time, having not given it thought before.

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

I think if we're looking at something as important as these graves being maintained.... We're hearing about how indigenous graves haven't been marked and the effort going into making sure that's done properly, and here we have the potential, from what I'm seeing and hearing, of losing care for a very large cemetery in Montreal. To me, an independent study on the importance of that particular remembrance area would be really important so that we have a clear understanding of its value and the need for the government to take responsibility for it. That's where I'm coming from.

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

That's fair. In our recent studies, for external partners, we've gone through a request for proposals process. The recent one we did had specific topics.

I will also share that we know from the community about the importance of that work and of commemoration. In fact, Floyd Powder was part of our inaugural reference group, which was an important body of volunteers who guided Atlas in their work. Our colleague spoke about him already. He's been engaged in that initiative.

I just want to offer my respect to the work that's being done with that too.

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

Thanks. I appreciate that.

I'll ask a few more questions about the homelessness issue. This has been going on for a long time. No one can seem to come up with a number. I know there are people who go out on a particular day and look, but it is difficult to locate homeless people. A lot of them are very efficient at being homeless and at couch surfing as well. We can't really deal with the issue if we don't know the numbers.

Is this something you could do by reaching out to the multiple organizations across Canada that do work with transitioning veterans? Could we get that information to a point where we have a much clearer understanding of how many of our veterans are homeless?

At what point in time does it happen? Is it when they leave the service? We're hearing that quite often it's a decade later, when they have struggled through trying to transition and haven't succeeded.

[MaryAnn Notarianni]

The issue of housing and homelessness among veterans is on our radar. We had team members attend the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness conference that took place here recently. We are aware of some initiatives. We've worked in different ways with VETS Canada, which provides some of the emergency supports to veterans who are at risk.

That's something we would like to look into more to see what Atlas's role might be on that topic, as it intersects with mental health.

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

I think it would be great for the committee to have any research you've done and your views, if you could provide that to us.