Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 17th, 2022

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Chair, I will be providing a notice of motion at the end of this meeting.

Can you confirm that these companies are essentially conducting quality assurance on themselves, that they're evaluating themselves in the contract?

[Steven Harris]

That is one element of it. Of course, they would provide quality assurance of their own services, and there are metrics that they have to provide back to the department in terms of quality assurance that we would also be reviewing. Of course, as part of their own internal work, they do quality assurance to ensure that their staff are delivering quality services. There are also metrics and measures and performance measures that they need to give back to us as the department to be responsible for the oversight and provision of the contract.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

But you don't recall what the penalties are for non-compliance of those service requirements.

[Steven Harris]

I don't have the penalties in front of me, unfortunately, no.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

I will now turn to the bilingualism issue. My question is for Ms. Bennett.

What experience do you have offering services in French?

[Tania Bennett]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.

We have significant experience delivering critical human services in French in both employment services contracts throughout Canada and the delivery of vocational assistance services for VAC in current contracts and previous contracts. We're the current contract deliverer for the vocational rehabilitation aspect of the rehabilitation program. That's a program we offer that provides services in French. We've been delivering that contract since 2015.

Even prior to that, since 2009, the precursor—

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

What recourse do francophones have if they do not receive services in French?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Mr. Julian, I'm sorry. Your six minutes are up.

As discussed, each speaker will have one minute, and there will be four speakers.

To begin, I will invite Ms. Cathay Wagantall, who is joining us via Zoom, to speak for one minute.

Please go ahead, Ms. Wagantall.

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

Thank you so much.

Mr. Harris, I assume you're familiar with the Auditor General's report we just studied at committee that indicated there was a complete lack of ability to determine whether or not service delivery was being done properly. There were no metrics. There was a great deal of concern about that report.

Are you familiar with it?

[Steven Harris]

I'm familiar with the report. I don't know that this was the entirety of the conclusion.

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

Okay. Is that part of the reason that we're looking at this company doing its own performance measurements? What do you have that you could provide to this committee that indicates what your intentions are in determining the quality assurance?

[Steven Harris]

Sure. I'd be happy to share information with the committee about how we will ensure quality assurance on this one. The Auditor General's report—

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

Do you have it in writing? Excuse me, sir. Do you have it in writing? I would like to receive it.

[Steven Harris]

Do we have quality assurance and performance metrics? Yes.

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

Okay. Could you provide that to the committee, please?

[Steven Harris]

Yes.

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

Thank you.

As well, we have $560 million going to this venture. That's almost $102 million per year. I look at that and see that we could easily employ the number of case managers required, as well as—

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Mrs. Wagantall, I'm sorry. You had only one minute for some quick questions.

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

That was such a short minute.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Exactly. I know. It's because we have an in camera meeting right afterward.

I'd like to invite Mrs. Rechie Valdez go ahead for one minute, please.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions will go to VAC officials.

Earlier we heard from the union that they fear that veterans will lose human face-to-face contact. They fear the loss of relationship. Can you provide your response to that?

[Nathalie Pham]

I would say that the intention is the opposite. Having a contract will allow the case managers to have more time engaging, building relationships, doing follow-up with their veterans, having those meaningful discussions and moving forward. That is the intention that we have been working on from a case management perspective. This contract will contribute to that.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you.

Who manages the QA of case files?

[Nathalie Pham]

With regard to the quality assurance of the case files, we have different levels. There are managers doing quality assurance for job compliance. We also have a case management unit that does the overall QA.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mrs. Valdez.

Mr. Desilets now has the floor for one minute.

Go ahead, Mr. Desilets.