First of all, I'd like to thank the chair very much for inviting us here today.
I'll give you a quick rundown. Veteran Staffing was launched in 2016 as an arm of Athenian Group, a technical staffing firm that we founded here in Alberta. We have clients across Canada whom we support in their staffing needs.
Part of that means we have clients looking to us for support in hiring veterans and trying to find sources for that. At the time, we had a resource: the Canada Company's MET program, which was a predecessor to the current transition program and which we found very beneficial. It had resources, so we were able to connect with veterans directly. They had a website on which they posted resumes and profiles we could reach out to. When that program was cancelled and VAC transitioned to the new program, we lost the ability to connect with veterans directly. I think that was something of a misstep in the last term.
I've been recruiting across Canada and the U.S. since I retired from the forces many years ago. One thing I've found is a general lack of ability to source veterans, beyond finding folks on general websites, be it Indeed or Workopolis, where they identify themselves. Organizations, be they public or private, no longer have the ability to reach out to these individuals specifically. That's definitely a shortcoming, in our minds.
The current CTS program provides valued resources to veterans, such as resume writing and interview preparation guides, but it doesn't provide support to the employers for sourcing veterans. That's the area we need to focus on, if you're looking at a new transition program.
One of the other areas we were looking at was trying to find out how many veterans are presently leaving the Department of Defence. A while ago, CBC reported that in the 2021 census, approximately 461,000 veterans self-reported. Veterans Affairs Canada, using a mathematical equation, came up with 617,000 veterans. I think finding the actual number will greatly help us figure out how we can help transition these folks who are moving into the public sector.
Previously, we've had success supporting veterans moving into the public sector, but I think the biggest issue we have is finding the veterans themselves, when they're looking beyond the number of different non-profits that are supporting them.
We've come up with some suggestions and resources that we think would be beneficial.
One of these is a wage subsidy program similar to what's in place for students, newcomers to Canada or under-represented people in the workforce. That would give companies an incentive to go out and source these people.
Secondly, the biggest thing to take away would be a tool or website, run either by Veterans Affairs or externally, that organizations could access to source individuals directly. I think that's a tool we've been missing and desperately in need of since the program was cancelled a couple of years ago.
I look forward to any questions. Thank you.