My service number is H76627241 and my Veterans Affairs number is 5088661. You should read my story, because it's not easy to sum up 34 years in five minutes.
I would love to understand how you can think it's a good idea, in any scenario, to subcontract services again. Services will now be provided by Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services Partners (CVRSP), a partnership that is in turn subdivided into two businesses, WCG International Consultants and Lifemark Health Group. Once again, these businesses will be lining their pockets.
Services were subcontracted in the 2000s to Blue Cross, and we know it doesn't work. Nothing has been improved for veterans since that time. On the contrary, the result is that the number of steps has doubled and services have been cut in half. Now you want to split them in four. I don't understand; it's complete nonsense. I don't know how you arrive at your figures. Personally, I learned that two plus two is four, but it seems that's not always true.
Am I the only one who can see that this is obviously a cut and paste of Mr. Trudeau's comments on Hockey Canada becoming Canada Hockey? We'll change Veterans Affairs or Blue Cross to CVRSP, which will again be split in two.
The contract awarded by Veterans Affairs is worth over $570 million. Do we even know how long the contract is for? Has that information been provided? Who will manage the money? What will happen to veterans services after this money runs out? I haven't heard anything about that. I never heard about any of this until I saw the news this week.
They said that there would be 9,000 new people. What experience do they have? We've talked about it before. Apparently, they are taking online upgrade modules to transition. That's a load of crap. The VAC officers, professionals and service providers have no information. This is also what I experienced at Ste. Anne's Hospital. People are being told that the information will come as the transition happens, and that will take at least six months.
In one statement, Minister MacAulay said that 100 temporary employees had been hired to help reduce the backlog. On another form, it said it was 50 employees. To me, there's a big difference between 100 and 50: 100 is twice as much as 50, and 50 is half of 100. Can we know which number it is? It's no wonder we're not able to put together programs that work.
The privatization of services simply doesn't work for Canadians in any scenario. It hasn't worked in education, it hasn't worked in health care, and it won't work for veterans either.
It took almost 12 years to get a new wheelchair. All these papers I have with me are just my active record for the last four years. You can look at all of that later, if you want.
In 2002 and 2003, my medical coverage was extended because my condition was found to be serious and very precarious. I even received a letter to that effect from the Minister of Veterans Affairs at the time, Mr. Pagtakhan. However, what happens to a letter like this after the minister is no longer in office? Does it turn into toilet paper? We don't know. I can tell you that it is of absolutely no use. In fact, I had to take new steps to start all over again.
Veterans are not clients. Stop talking to them like they are. You don't choose to be physically disabled, psychologically damaged, or emotionally or sexually scarred. That's where you are greatly mistaken. You choose to be a client at Provigo or Maxi; you don't choose clients from injured veterans. Veterans are not clients. Unification and simplicity are what works.
I've been a veteran since 1998. Back then, first, the case manager came to my house to meet with me, as well as the lawyer and the doctor. It was all done in person, directly, and that's what works. If you want to serve people, you have to work with them.
There is no scenario in which this plan will work. The only way to help veterans is through direct contact between people. We need feedback from the district and regional offices, feedback from case managers who know us, who come to us, who are in our homes and who know our real needs. We need face-to-face interaction, transparency, integrity, respect, fairness, courtesy and dignity. If you recognize those words, it's because they are all in the Veterans Bill of Rights. They are all rights written in there, but we don't have them. We veterans also have the right to be involved in discussions and services that affect us. I've had no right to do that in any of these matters.
You need to listen to veterans and determine their real needs, rather than planning for maximum, often unnecessary spending developed by subcontracted agencies and other, once again subcontracted stakeholders, and now you're going to add two more of them.