Veterans Affairs Committee on May 8th, 2023

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

In your opinion, is that something Veterans Affairs should be more involved in—providing service dogs or even standards for service dogs for veterans?

[Dawn McIlmoyle]

I feel as if I know people whose service dogs saved their life. If they didn't have a dog, they would not be here. I have lots of friends who are like that. It's so simple, yet it seems so complicated.

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

Thank you. I appreciate that. I think it's a great thing for us as a committee to be looking at for recommendations.

I'll go back to where I was previously with regard to wait times.

I'll start with you, Ms. Hughes, but I noticed others were nodding their heads and probably have something they want to add to this, so I'll open it up to all of you, if you like.

In order to get those wait times down, what would the number...? I've often heard about the idea of using a presumptive injury list as a way of eliminating some of the claims from the system and, obviously, serving those veterans more quickly and all veterans more quickly as a result. I'll open it up to other suggestions as well.

What would you say is the number one thing that could be done to bring those wait times down? If you were made the Minister of Veterans Affairs tomorrow, what would you do? What's the first thing you would do to help bring those wait times down?

[Carolyn Hughes]

The most common conditions should be granted almost on a presumptive basis, with just a few checks, at least on service and maybe on length of time and a few other things. However, it shouldn't take a year and a half to two years to hear back about whether your lower back is related to your infantry service, for example, where you're carrying a rucksack a lot of the time.

They could do something like what they did with COVID benefits when people were off work. Do a check after the fact. Give veterans the heads-up and say that if they're lying about things—I'm not saying they would—they may have to pay their benefit back.

I think they should start doing more regarding treatment benefits too. It's been great that they're doing that for mental health benefits, but when you're talking with somebody who has bad knees or a bad back, and they have to wait two years before they can find out if a brace or some physiotherapy is going to be approved, you hear two years is a long time to wait.

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

It sure is. It's unacceptable, I would say.

Does anyone else have thoughts on this they'd like to share?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Do so in 15 seconds, please, because time is running out.

Please go ahead.

[LCol Sandra Perron]

How many agents do we have working on appeals to claims who could be working on improving claims instead of veterans fighting for these claims? That's the first thing.

Secondly, in French, the wait time is much longer.

I have many friends, and they all say, “Don't do it in French, because you're going to be waiting double the time for the agents.”

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

I apologize. I would like to hear from the others, but it sounds like I won't be able to, apparently, because the chair is telling me I have to stop.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

We'll come back to that. We have a last round. Thank you.

Now I'd like to invite Mrs. Rechie Valdez to ask questions for five minutes, please.

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

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for joining us for this important study. I do want to express my gratitude for those who serve our country.

I'll direct my questions to Lieutenant-Colonel Perron.

Based on your testimony, I want to come back to the stats you mentioned for those who have experienced sexual misconduct or trauma. What type of support or education should we be providing or considering for this study to better assist those impacted by traumas?

[LCol Sandra Perron]

One thing I would be a proponent of is to have scenarios developed by the military. All soldiers would then be put through scenarios where they get a chance to be champions of diversity and of any actions they deem sexual misconduct. Right now we have fake scenarios. We're in a classroom and soldiers get to practise them: “What would you do in this type of situation?”

This is a discussion I've had with the chief of the defence staff on down. Why don't you create real scenarios in training so that soldiers get put in a situation where they have a chance to speak up and defend their colleagues, who are acting as actors? However, they're doing a scenario and then they talk about it in a safe place.

I've had this discussion about the scenarios with those in my own regiment, where I'm an honorary colonel, the Régiment de Hull. They didn't get all the answers correct, but the discussion was respectful and mature. They grew and they learned. We need to allow our soldiers to make mistakes in scenarios so they can grow and learn.

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

Thank you for those ideas. We haven't quite heard that type of testimony before, so I appreciate it.

You also mentioned in your opening statement that we need to learn more about women's bodies. At the last committee meeting, we heard testimony from the Department of Veterans Affairs that work had started to make accommodations for women veterans, which is promising.

I'd like to hear your recommendations for this committee on how to help make more proper accommodations for women veterans.

[LCol Sandra Perron]

This is so important. Women are having babies. They're going back to work. Within a certain time, they're being asked to pass a physical training test, a battle fitness test. Sometimes that time is too fast and they're having pelvic health issues. We don't know about that in the military because we don't have OB/GYNs and medical doctors who are used to dealing with women going back after pregnancies.

Women are tied to the military medical system, so let's get educated about women's bodies, about what they go through after pregnancies, about menopause and about the tools out there to help women go through menopause, instead of having them leave because they're too tired, they're burnt out, they're not sleeping or they're not getting, perhaps, the proper hormone replacement therapy. We don't talk about it and they don't know what to ask.

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

Thank you very much.

I'll direct my next questions to Ms. Hughes.

I appreciate the work of the Royal Canadian Legion, especially Streetsville Branch 139 in my riding. In your experience, what are some of the most effective ways to ensure that the unique needs of women veterans are being met?

[Carolyn Hughes]

They are education, more research and gender-based analysis on everything. It has to start from the military from the time somebody enrols, with education concerning their own health and with doctors who understand that research. They must go through every stage of their life considering their unique needs.

Some of the equipment doesn't account for breasts. Something as simple as that could be changed. There's a lot that can be done, and it has to start at the beginning when they first enrol.

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

Thank you.

My last question is for Dr. Waddington Lamont.

What are some of the challenges you've been hearing about regarding indigenous identity for women veterans in the military that you could share?

[Dr. Elaine Waddington Lamont]

Some of the things we have heard are that people would appreciate having opportunities to participate in their culture and to perhaps have access to elders in situations where they might be facing discipline of some kind. Being able to have that kind of support would allow them to be enriched by their culture rather than be disconnected from it.

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

Thank you, everybody.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mrs. Valdez.

We will start our third round which will last 15 minutes in total. There will be four interventions.

I would like to invite Mr. Terry Dowdall to go ahead for five minutes.

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

At this time, I want to thank all the witnesses for their statements today. I know it's quite the testimony for you to go through, so thank you for being here.

First of all, I would like to follow up on my colleague's comments that we didn't get to finish about wait times and the issues around help. I will now afford time for answers.

[LCol Sandra Perron]

I'm sorry. Who did you want to respond?

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

It sounded like a few of you wanted to comment a bit more about wait times and perhaps about ways we could improve them.

[LCol Sandra Perron]

I snuck my points in there, so I think I'm good.

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Does anybody else have a comment that might help?

[Dr. Elaine Waddington Lamont]

I'd be happy to comment.

Something that I've heard from people is not directly about wait times but more about how people might address wait times and other inadequacies.

One suggestion is to listen to people. Sometimes people will describe what they need. They will say, “I need this kind of treatment” or “I'm experiencing these symptoms”. The path by which those symptoms might have emerged is not clearly stated in their record, yet it is clear that they are suffering. If there was some way of documenting suffering and figuring out what percentage might be relevant to that afterward, then there is suffering that needs to be addressed. It is being exacerbated by wait times, but it is also being exacerbated by thinking, “That doesn't fit into the protocol that I have in front of me; therefore, I cannot address it”.