Veterans Affairs Committee on May 1st, 2023

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

I'm from Saskatchewan; we have weather, we have it all. We have veterans. I'm just wondering about the potential in Saskatchewan. Of course, in Moose Jaw we have Dundurn, a kind of crucial place for training and for maintaining protection of ammo and whatnot.

Will there be one in Saskatchewan, and when? Is there one there already? Have you looked at all at creating one that's specifically for women?

[Col Lisa Noonan]

There is a transition centre cadre in Moose Jaw. It just got implemented about a week ago. The regional headquarters is in Winnipeg. There are some regional programs that are run out of Winnipeg, but, depending on the population because it's a fairly small releasing number from Moose Jaw, they may either send a team to travel to Moose Jaw to run some of those programs or some of the Moose Jaw people may come to Winnipeg, but it's very much overseen by Winnipeg.

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

Does the releasing member have a choice as to where they go?

[Col Lisa Noonan]

That's the great thing about the digital transition centres. There can be virtual appointments with a transition adviser either in Moose Jaw or, if they prefer to go to Winnipeg, that could be arranged as well. We try to keep within the regions, people referred within that region.

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

We did hear quite a bit at committee here that a lot of them struggle with going back to the base. I just wonder if you've researched that. Looking at our studies, we did hear that they do struggle with going back.

I just have one thing I'd like to quote from Ombudsman Jardine who came to the committee to give us testimony. She said to us that when she left the forces, “...it was devastating because I didn't know who I was if I wasn't wearing a uniform”.

This is a woman of high stature. In fact, one of the first things that she did once released was apply to receive a veteran's licence plate. In other words, “I'm here, I'm one of these”.

I just hope that our women who have served realize how valuable they are and take advantage of every opportunity to say that they're here and that they've served. I don't know what you have in mind for that, but the more conversations we have with them, I suppose the more ways we'll come up with to make sure that they are fully recognized.

[Col Lisa Noonan]

Absolutely. I think anything we can do to erase that feeling of invisibility is very important.

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

Do I have 30 seconds? I'll leave some time for my colleague then.

Go ahead.

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

Thank you very much.

That's very surprising and good news to hear about the transition centre in Moose Jaw. Thank you very much.

First of all, I'll ask you a bit about that. If you can let me know about it, we can let our people know within our ridings.

[Col Lisa Noonan]

Absolutely. We have a communications plan for each of the transition centres as they roll out that also lets all the members in the local region know. If you want more information on it, we can provide that through the clerk.

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

Okay, thank you.

Unfortunately, earlier on during questioning, we got cut off because we ran out of time. I asked about the military. We have electricians and engineers who come out of the military, but their certificates and qualifications don't line up with civilian qualifications.

I'd like to know what kinds of inroads are being made and what direction we're going in, in order to make that transition easier. A point was made earlier on by my colleague about the potential of a co-op.

I know there are people who leave the military, go into the reserves and then they transition out, but for people who are going directly out, in what direction are we going for those leaving the military?

[Col Lisa Noonan]

There are a couple of different initiatives on the go. There's an education consortium that's been on the go with community colleges and is now being extended to universities, so that if people need to go back to school or if they need to expand their credentials in that regard, they can do that through this consortium and get advanced standing.

As I mentioned before, there's also a program we're developing, or have developed and are continuing to enhance. It's called “My Skills and Education Translator” or MySET. It basically provides a translation of the individual's experience and qualifications they've obtained during their career. That is then provided to the employer they want to work with—let's say it's a plumber—to see if they can get those apprenticeship hours written off, and to challenge the Red Seal exam as well.

Those are the kinds of things we're working on right now.

We also have something which is a kind of occupational equivalency tool that equates what they're currently doing to civilian occupations. If they're not sure what occupations relate to their current career, they can use this as well. It's used in combination with MySET to provide those kinds of equivalencies and give them advanced standing.

It's still under development and we're going to the next level with it, so it hasn't been rolled out yet, but within the next year, that's what we're hoping to do.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much.

I now invite Sherry Romanado to speak.

Mrs. Romanado, you have the floor for the last five minutes.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to follow up on what my colleague was just talking about.

Colonel Noonan, in terms of preventing losing female serving members, if someone joins the Canadian Armed Forces, moves up the ranks and then decides, “I'd like to have a family as well”.... As you know, more often than not, women have that second shift where they're responsible for finding day care and taking care of the family, and so on and so forth.

If a female member wants to have multiple children while in the Canadian Armed Forces and they decide they don't want to deploy.... We're talking about universality of service, but it may be something that's temporary in terms of, “I have three children under the age of five and I don't want to deploy.”

Are there accommodations made so that the member can still meet requirements, but also have a family at the same time? Could you talk to that?

[Col Lisa Noonan]

I think even women who are in deployable occupations are able to balance that much better with having a family than they were 20 years ago. There are certain measures we take to ensure that this balance occurs, regardless of the occupation.

Let's say they decide, because they want to devote more time to their family, that they want an occupation that deploys less frequently, perhaps, than the one they're currently in. We have an occupation transfer program. They can apply through that to voluntarily move over to another occupation that's perhaps more stable and less deployable in nature.

Certainly, we try, and we're encouraging women to join the combat arms and other operational occupations, so that work-life balance piece is well recognized and is being attended to, even by those occupations. There is a way to do that and, if they're married to a military spouse, balance the two careers as well.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Thank you for that.

I have one last thing.

I know that we had announced that often in our MFRCs we will provide veterans with some of the same services. If you were on base then you had access to the MFRC while you were serving. If you then decide to release or are releasing due to medical issues, then finding day care is often not easy, as you can imagine. Would female veterans who are looking for day care facilities have access to day cares that are at the MFRCs as part of that veteran support group and the transition centres?

[Col Lisa Noonan]

That's a great idea. I'm not sure if that's been looked at.

One of the things we are doing is working with Military Family Services, MFS. They're kind of a co-partner with us and VAC in setting up the transition centres. There is a family transition adviser who works as early as possible with each of the military releasing members, whether they're female or male.

Sometimes females do have complex needs. They may be single mothers. They may be balancing elder care with young children care as they're releasing. That family transition adviser is there to provide those kinds of options to them, or to reach into the community to see if there are resources that can be made available, wherever that member is releasing across the country. They fall under MFS, but they are in a network in combination with the MFRCs across the country.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Speaking of a network, we talked a little bit about how military competencies don't really match up with the NOC codes in the civilian world. Often, women don't have the same professional networks that men do.

What are some of the initiatives that you're doing in the transition centres to assist women to leverage some of those networks that they may have to be able to find gainful employment after their military career?

[Col Lisa Noonan]

That's a great question as well.

I think as we move forward, those third party organizations that I mentioned before are going to be really critical, especially for female veterans.

I can't say who we're working with right now, but we have a couple of bidders that we're working with through a competitive process. One of the bidders actually has, as the option, a mentor approach to women who are releasing to help them establish the networks in the community that they're planning to retire in, and to help them with other post-CAF employment, or family needs as well.

I think, as we go forward, some of these programs are really going to be beneficial to all veterans. But female veterans in particular are really going to be able to benefit from this one-on-one coaching and mentoring.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

We're going to stop right here.

I'd like to ask Ms. Blaney if she would like to talk about the letter issued to the chair, or can we go on?

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

Chair, I didn't want to take up any time with our witnesses today.

I think the letter is pretty self-explanatory. We requested a few other names. Only one of them came today. I just wanted to check in and see if those other folks are going to be coming at a different time. I was hoping that the chair would be willing to send a letter to ask about that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Yes, that's okay.

We will do that and ask DND to let those people come to the committee.

Thank you very much.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Chair, can I be so rude?

There's a quick motion. I don't think it will have any discussion. I just wanted to move it and it's around the clerk being able to put up an advertisement to get information on this study. I can read the motion.

The motion is:

That the clerk of the committee be authorized to place an advertisement in detailing the committee’s work and inviting briefs and requests to appear in relation to the committee’s study respecting the experience of women Veterans; and that the deadline for the submission of briefs and requests to appear be September 29, 2023.

I just wanted to move that, Chair. I don't think anybody will have any problem. I just want to make sure that everyone who wants to send in a brief has the capacity to do that and we make it as easy for them as possible.

I leave it to you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much, Ms. Blaney.

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

I might have missed it, but it was about placing an advertisement. Where would we be placing the advertisement?