Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 9th, 2023

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

We're talking about the civilian sector and not dealing with the needs of our armed forces in manufacturing, overhaul and all the maintenance of our—

[Mike Mueller]

That's correct. Those numbers are for the civilian side. I know there also are challenges on the military side, but I wouldn't be the best expert to talk about those numbers.

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

It would be a good place for us to be hiring as well.

How much time do I have?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

It's over. Thank you. I don't have to cut off Mr. Mueller again. That's great.

Now let's go to Zoom. I invite Mrs. Rechie Valdez to ask questions for five minutes or less. Please go ahead.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to welcome the witnesses joining us this evening for this important study.

First off, I really want to thank you for all the work you do to empower our veterans and assist them in transitioning into meaningful work.

Through you, Mr. Chair, I am going to direct my first questions to Mr. Bury or Mr. Trépanier.

I am curious. When you pair a veteran with a place of employment, what do you base it on? Is it based on their existing skill sets or interest?

Walk us through what that process is like.

[MGen (Ret'd) Paul Bury]

I would hesitate to use the term “pairing” a veteran to a position or an occupation. Helmets to Hardhats is a referral service for veterans and serving reservists and the other client base—the demographics that I spoke of. We work with the locals of the Canada's Building Trades Unions and their apprenticeship and training coordinators. We look to match an individual with an apprenticeship in their local area.

When an individual is transitioning from the military, we'll ask them three questions: Where do you want to live? What do you want to do? When can you start? This refers to their release date, when they are free from their commitment to the Canadian military.

Based on their answers, we'll work with an apprenticeship and a training coordinator to match them with that position and get them through the process so that they can start an apprenticeship.

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

That's awesome.

Based on all your experience over the years, can you share what feedback employers have given about veterans in terms of their preparedness for the job? Also, have you seen an increase in the rate of hiring veterans over the years?

[MGen (Ret'd) Paul Bury]

We have received quite a lot of comments and feedback, whether it's from contractors, business owners or the unions themselves. They are very impressed with the quality of the veterans as individuals. They understand that when they hire a veteran, they will get real-world experience along with specific skill sets. They'll get leadership, commitment, the ability to work in a teamwork setting and punctuality. Most of all, what they're after is maturity.

They actively seek out veterans from us who bring those soft skills to the work site. As I said before, through the apprenticeship system you can teach specific skills required for the occupation, but it is all those other real-world soft skills that they really seek out.

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

Thank you.

Could you share the typical success rate? How long do they remain in the role? I'm not sure if you have any statistics or any knowledge on that.

[MGen (Ret'd) Paul Bury]

Just to clarify, do you mean how long they remain employed with contractors?

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

That's right.

[MGen (Ret'd) Paul Bury]

Mr. Chair, we don't track that type of statistic. Once the individual veteran is hired on and they start moving through the apprenticeship system with the union, we don't track that. We don't have longitudinal studies about success rates going through their apprenticeship system. That would be a question for the unions, I would imagine.

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

Thank you.

Through you, Mr. Chair, I have a quick question for Mr. Mueller.

Do you exclusively hire veterans who have experience with aerospace in the field, or do you just try to find someone who has the overall skills and then train them on the job?

[Mike Mueller]

Thank you for the question.

It would be on a case-by-case basis, depending on the needs of the particular company. It would probably be a little bit of both.

Obviously, if they have the hard skills that are required for the industry, that's an easier transition, but the leadership skills and those soft skills that veterans have make them ideal employees and contributors to the industry in any capacity. As a general rule, veterans have a lot of the skill sets, whether hard or soft, that are very attractive to the sector.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you so much, Mrs. Valdez.

We will now have two members take brief turns.

Ms. Michaud, the floor is yours for two and a half minutes.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to address you again, Mr. Trépanier. Your colleague can also answer my question.

One point piqued my curiosity on your website. We see that the Afghan interpreters are part of the military community and eligible for the Helmets to Hardhats program. As well, in the text of your opening remarks, which you provided to us, you say:

Let's not forget our brave Afghan interpreters who left everything behind to relocate to Canada to start over; we have a duty to help them. Our goal is to offer program participants not just a job, but a career that lives up to their expectations.

Can you tell us more about this program? How many Afghan interpreters have you assisted to date? How does that work? Is it a program that generates interest?

[Normand Trépanier]

Thank you very much for that question.

We currently have just over 20 Afghan interpreters registered in our program. As Mr. Bury said earlier, the local 27 carpenters in Toronto are encouraging and engaging these Afghans.

Why is it to be expected that we would work with them? We must not forget that in Afghanistan, where Mr. Bury and I were, the interpreters put their lives at risk just as we did. The danger they faced was even greater than ours, because they became potential enemies to the Afghan community, which knew that they were working with us. To come to Canada, those interpreters had to abandon everything and start all over. I believe that we, as Canadians, must absolutely help them and help them well.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

That is to your credit. We get the sense that things are going fairly well for them.

Do they feel safe enough when they are rebuilding their lives here? Do they feel that they are getting the right help, the right support, once they are enrolled in the program?

[Normand Trépanier]

I hope so.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Mueller, I would like your opinion about how things are going, in general. You said you were prepared to work with the government to get more veterans in your industry. What do you think could be done to improve this national strategy?

[Mike Mueller]

Thank you for the question.

More collaboration is always best. We're fully supportive of a strategy to ensure that we can secure employment for veterans, but I think it's also broader than that. We've been talking a lot to government about the overarching need for an industrial strategy. How do we attract investment? How do we remain competitive? We need to plan these things out in very structured ways.

I think this in particular is one component of that overarching strategy. How do we make sure that it is non-political and that it survives right across the board for the long term, building capacity and capability so that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mr. Mueller.

For the last questions, I invite Ms. Rachel Blaney for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am going to come back to the amazing Helmets to Hardhats.

I will, first of all, just say how much I appreciate the work that you do. I've been really impressed. I love your monthly stats. They are so transparent. They let us know how many veterans are registered in your program. That's incredibly helpful. They let us know what provinces.... It's fantastic.

I have a couple of questions. First, what kind of support do you provide when they move to the work site? I'm curious about that, because it sounds like it's one of the important parts of supporting that civilian transition and all of the different steps. As they go through this process, how do you support them in each of those steps?

[Normand Trépanier]

That is a good question, Mr. Chair.

We support the veterans throughout their process, right up to when they are recruited for the occupation they have chosen. We know what union they are affiliated with and we know the name of the company they are working for.

Yes, we always follow up with them. Even though they've been hired, we're going to carry on asking questions how the guys, or girls, are doing, and so on. We don't give up. We always make sure they're doing well, and that we're getting some feedback from the company or the union on how things are going as well.