Evidence of meeting #25 for Veterans Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was contract.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Okay. I'll try to be quick, because I know I have colleagues who want to ask questions as well.
Can I start with the folks from the Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services, whoever it is that is answering? How long has your Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services been in existence?
4:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Executive Sponsor, WCG Services, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
Thank you for the question. Mr. Chair, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services was formed specifically in relation to this contract.
4:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Executive Sponsor, WCG Services, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
The service was developed for that, so it was during the procurement process that I think is probably—
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
I'm sorry, but I have to cut you off, because I don't have a lot of time to use here. You've given me a sense of the answer. It's just been created for this purpose.
Can you tell me what qualifications the workers from your organization who will be interacting with veterans have? What is their training and experience?
Obviously when we're talking about dealing with our veterans and with their families, there is often a very different scenario than there would be in dealing with insurance claimants and things like that. Obviously, in many cases there are some significant operational injuries, including psychological injuries. What training and experience and qualifications, specifically with regard to working with veterans, do the people have who will be interfacing with veterans?
4:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Executive Sponsor, WCG Services, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
Thank you for that question. Mr. Chair, I'll speak about some of the qualifications and invite my colleague Paulette to give some details around the training.
In terms of the qualifications, the rehabilitation services specialists who will be working with veterans are regulated health or vocational rehabilitation professionals who have experience in coordinating and delivering medical, psychosocial or vocational rehabilitation services. They're experienced professionals who are regulated and who have the appropriate designations and credentials. Typically we'll have social workers and other health professionals.
Paulette, can you provide some more detail, please?
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Can I ask you to focus in on what training and experience they have in working with veterans and their families? That's what I really need to understand.
4:50 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Executive Sponsor, WCG Services, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
That's great.
4:50 p.m.
Paulette Gardiner Millar Contract Manager, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
Certainly. From a training perspective, PCVRS has involved subject matter experts and we have an instructional design specialist to help us put together training modules specific for—
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
I'm sorry, but can I interrupt you there? What I heard you say is that you've engaged someone to help you design a training model. This is supposed to start next week. These people will be working with veterans starting next week. Are they trained or not?
4:50 p.m.
Contract Manager, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
It's complete. I'm explaining what has happened over the last year and a half.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
I'm sorry. I misunderstood. It sounded as though you were saying that you were just beginning that process. Okay, tell me where they're at right now. I don't need to know the process over the last year, just we're they're at.
4:50 p.m.
Contract Manager, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
They're complete, and we've had great feedback from veterans we've had take a look at it.
I agree with you that this population has specific needs, so some of the areas we've included in our training are unique to military culture, including things like barriers and how to support transition to post-service life; certainly mental health awareness, including understanding the mental health continuum, moral injury and operational stress injury, mood disorders and anxiety- and trauma-informed disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder, which we heard about earlier today, as well as substance-related disorders.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
All of the employees have been trained in these? I'm sorry to be cutting you off, but I'm given only so much time here, so I need to make sure we get through everything we need to get to. They're all trained? Everyone working with veterans has been trained in all of these things that you've just outlined?
4:50 p.m.
Contract Manager, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
The areas that I've just described will be mandatory for everyone who is involved in treating participants in this program.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
4:50 p.m.
Contract Manager, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
Some will have already started, and others won't have yet, because we haven't launched.
4:50 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
But there will be people working with veterans starting next week, correct?
4:50 p.m.
Contract Manager, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
We will start the process of doing our initial assessment and then getting them set up. Everyone will be trained as they are beginning their work with the veteran population.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Okay, and what about experience? Would any of your employees have experience working with veterans?
4:55 p.m.
Contract Manager, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services
Yes, certainly.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Okay.
For the department officials, I do have some questions for you.
First of all, though, you're probably aware of a motion I made in this committee asking for documents related to the standard operating procedures for recording calls between veterans and veteran service agents, as well as between veterans and case managers. Would you be willing to provide that to the committee by, say, next Tuesday? I've asked for it within 48 hours. Could you provide us with your standard operating procedures by next Tuesday?
4:55 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Service Delivery Branch, Department of Veterans Affairs
We can certainly provide that. Yes.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Thank you. If you could get those to the clerk, we would appreciate it.
Now I'll go to the issue that we're dealing with today.
In this process, I see there being three key people here. Obviously, veterans and their families, first and foremost, are clearly the priority here, but I think we also were talking about those who work for the department now and are going to see some changes to what happens with their roles. Also, I think service providers obviously could be impacted in this changeover as well.
I wanted to get from you a sense of what has occurred in terms of communication between the department and each of those three key stakeholders particularly, starting with the veterans.
