Veterans Affairs Committee on Jan. 30th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mr. Desilets.

We now go over to Ms. Blaney who has two and a half minutes.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much, Chair.

Ms. Hicks, I'll come back to you.

You mentioned that the education and training benefit seems to be having a pickup. Can you table stats with the committee, or send us to where we would get that information? That would be helpful.

There are nodding heads. That's fantastic.

My other question is on the potential bias, stigma and discrimination faced by veterans when trying to find employment. I've heard from veterans directly that there's a broad brush that paints veterans: They have mental health challenges. They're suffering from PTSD. They're unstable and difficult to employ.

That's the perception they feel like they're battling out there. I wonder if VAC is taking this into consideration. What are the active steps that VAC is taking to counteract this false narrative?

That's a pretty broad brush to paint every veteran with. It certainly undermines the high level of training and diligence that they had in their service. I wonder how that is being addressed. Will it be addressed more succinctly through this process?

[Jane Hicks]

It's something that came up as part of the consultation process. Veterans are not broken. There are a lot of veterans who have meaningful contributions and purpose and who want to be employed.

That's certainly something we're using as we develop the strategy: looking at ways we can get that information out there, and working with CAF to change the narrative.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you for that.

I want to come back—probably to you, Mr. Hutt—to the entrepreneurial stream.

Again, and as I said, I feel this is not being picked up as well as it could be. I understand there are programs like the Prince's operation entrepreneur, but has there been any consideration, at all, to giving out more seed funding in order to help veterans actually open up this door—to look at those funds and perhaps have a bit more grace in the strategy, so they can have the financial resources to start their positions and businesses?

[LCol (Ret'd) Chris Hutt]

We are looking at that entrepreneurial space as part of our analysis, but we don't know what tools.... We're still trying to figure out if there are, in fact, gaps. We have some of the anecdotal.... In the consultations, we heard some of the same things. There were statements made about barriers or frictions in the entrepreneurial space. We don't have them quantified, so we don't know exactly what levers we need to pull.

When I say “we”, it's not necessarily going to be Veterans Affairs. The strategy has to be national in scope and include both governmental and non-governmental agencies. We need to create some alignment or suite of tools that respond to that need, but we don't know what that is yet.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you so much.

I know some members were prepared to ask more questions, but time is running out. I'd like to give two minutes to each of them. I'll start with Mr. Fraser Tolmie, with Mrs. Rechie Valdez after that.

You have two minutes. Please go ahead.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you, Mr. Hutt, for your service.

Respectfully, during our conversations today, one comment made was that you're taking surveys of people who have gone through the re-education program and gotten employment. These people have been successful. The problem I have with that is, the metrics should be.... You should be evaluating people who aren't successful and looking for jobs.

I've read through the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates report from June 2019; “A Seamless Transition to Civilian Life for All Veterans: It's Time for Action” from May 2018; and Bill C-27 for vets' employment, which was passed March 31, 2015. What kind of assurance are we going to have? There are 32 recommendations sitting here. We need to hear what you're going to do differently from all those other reports.

[Jane Hicks]

If I may, Mr. Chair, I want to clarify a point.

It was an evaluation done by the department. When I talked about the career transition service, and the education and training benefit, it was a random sample. It had nothing to do with the success of the program. It was on those who had applied for the program. That was the survey conducted. We have the results, and we can share those with the committee.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

To clarify, can you tell me, out of that survey, how many people were successful and how many haven't been successful?

[Jane Hicks]

I believe it's part of the evaluation report that we can share with you.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Okay.

What are you doing to evaluate people who have not been successful? That's the area we need to focus on.

[Nathan Svenson]

There are two areas we focus on when we're measuring. One is the people participating in the programs and services offered by the department, and one is the broader veteran population.

Thanks to the census identification question in 2021, Statistics Canada is now able to identify who those veterans are. We just completed a survey from October to December 2022—the Canadian veteran health survey. It covers a number of these questions: main activity, satisfaction with job and labour market activities. Those should represent veterans, whether or not they are accessing services through Veterans Affairs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you so much.

We'll go to Mrs. Rechie Valdez for two minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the department for joining us today.

We heard about the well-being and mental health of veterans earlier. Through you, Mr. Chair, can the department share how the veteran and family well-being fund has been providing funds to grassroots organizations that help veterans find employment and upgrade their skills after they serve our country?

[Nathan Svenson]

Since its inception in 2018, the veteran and family well-being fund has supported more than 100 community-based organizations. In particular, 14 of those projects have gone towards initiatives that are focused on employment and retraining, totalling almost $6 million in funding awarded to date. That's a focus.

Every time we hold a round of competitions for the fund, we're specifically looking for the initiatives that will have the most impact in that stated theme and the scope of reach, whether it's across the country or within the community. That's how we rank those applications. We look at both the impact and the scope.

We have some examples of a number of projects that have been funded. We can share a list with the committee of those 14 projects in this theme.

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

That would be great.

Is VAC's education and training benefit meeting its objectives to help transition veterans in upgrading their skills or finding good jobs?

[Jane Hicks]

As per the evaluation that was completed, the education and training benefit was meeting its objectives.

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

Thank you.

Could you clarify for us how many veterans are accessing it, or what they are using it for?

[Jane Hicks]

Just this past fiscal year, there were approximately 2,200 who accessed the education and training benefit. It's for a whole variety of courses. I don't have it, but we can provide a list of the most frequent courses that are accessed.

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

Thank you.

I think I'm probably out of time to ask another one. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Exactly.

Yes, go ahead on a point of order.

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

It's a point of information. There were a couple of questions I planned to ask you at the end of the meeting to get updates on a couple of things. I think that, potentially, depending on the response, the witnesses may have something they can help with on this. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a couple of quick questions, just to see where we're at with a couple of pieces of committee business.

The first one is with regard to the documents we received, I think it was last Thursday. In the first part of that motion, we asked for all of the internal communications between the minister's office and the department about medical assistance in dying. The department seems to have interpreted that to be within some defined date range. Therefore, some of the information we were seeking is cut off. That does not comply with the motion, Mr. Chair, and I was curious what we're going to do to ensure that we get the rest of the documentation. That's the first thing.

The second one is with regard to the study we just did on the rehab contract. I know we had given some instructions for a report. I understand that we're awaiting the contract, which I understand the department is having translated, and I assume we should have it any day. I wonder when we plan to work on that report.

Those are the two questions. I just thought that maybe I should ask because they may have information that could be helpful. I don't know where we're at with those. Have you followed up with the department on the documents, for example?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you for the questions. I know that the clerk is in touch with the department.

Maybe you can help a little bit on those two fronts, please.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Audrée Dallaire]

Sure.

I think you're referring to the big motion we had. There were two points, one with a date and the other without any date range. I did ask the chair if the dates that were in the second point would apply to the first one. That's how we got the same range for both of those points in the motion.

As for the second question you had on the rehab contract, as mentioned in the interim letter from the department, it will be coming in mid-February.

I'll leave it to the chair if he has anything to add.

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

Before we go to that part, on the motion, the motion was very clear. There was a date range for the second part. There was not a date range for the first part. There was a very specific reason for that. I don't believe the motion, therefore, has been complied with. I'm wondering if maybe the department officials could answer how quickly they could provide the rest of the documentation that's already overdue now.

I don't know if you can give us any information, Mr. Harris.