Veterans Affairs Committee on June 1st, 2023

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

I am. Thank you.

There's no doubt that transitioning from the Canadian Armed Forces to civilian life presents medical challenges. The transfer of records is also a challenge, because we have to negotiate it, so to speak, with the 10 provinces and three territories. Only Alberta and Nova Scotia keep electronic medical records. So the electronic transfer of records is almost impossible, because there are too many different systems. As a result, we transfer medical records directly to members on a USB key or CD‑ROM. So the information is available, but the transfer is not as smooth as it could be.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I've attended Veterans Review and Appeal Board hearings a couple of times, and it's shocking to see veterans showing up and being sent home because of something like the copy of their x‑rays is not clear enough. In 2023, I don't understand why we can't transfer those types of documents electronically. That's why I don't accept that response, although I do like you very much.

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

Mr. Chair, we've invested a great deal—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

I'll ask that the answer be brief, please.

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

We've invested a great deal of money into setting up a team to help us transfer files, since we got behind at one point. We now have a team working full-time on file transfers and scanning our documents so that they can be read by civilian electronic systems.

The problem is that we're still in a hybrid stage where some of our documents are on film from back in the day, that is to say negatives, while others are electronic. Not all machines are able to read these old films, of course. We have the same problem with files, which contain some documents on paper and others in an electronic format. So these are hybrid files.

When Ms. Bourgon started her career 36 years ago, there were no electronic documents. So some of it is on paper and some of it is electronic. Therefore, some members who are transitioning have hybrid records. This situation will continue until all our members whose files are on paper have transitioned to civilian life. So it remains a challenge for sure.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you, but this is an urgent challenge for many veterans.

[LGen Lise Bourgon]

I would just like to clarify that I'm Franco-Ontarian.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

So you are a francophone.

[LGen Lise Bourgon]

I wouldn't go that far.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Now that we know where we all are, we will go to Ms. Blaney for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good luck keeping this group in order.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

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

This is interesting. I will put this to whoever is the best to answer it. I will let you guys be the experts, as always.

When members transition from military to civilian health care, I wonder who is in charge—if anyone is in charge—of educating the health care system receiving them on cultural and military awareness. It seems as if that's a very specific reality. I think it's in the United States where health care is seamless between the service and becoming a veteran.

I am wondering whether anyone is in charge of it. Is that a gap, and is there a place that would be best served to do that role?

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

Yes, there is still a gap, but it is slowly closing, I would argue.

First, we need to realize that a majority of our members are releasing in areas where there are lots of members releasing, because they usually live near a base or wing. The community gets familiar with our members as a result of that. They see more of our veterans, I guess, in those locations.

That is not the case, obviously, when a member decides to release remotely. That is where we have challenges. In order to address those challenges, we recently worked with Veterans Affairs and the College of Family Physicians of Canada to develop a best-advice guide, as they call it, to help family doctors in the community better understand what it is to be a veteran, what our military members are going through in their career area, what kinds of stressors they are exposed to, what types of conditions they develop as a result of those stressors, how best to take care of them and what resources are available to them after release. That goes for the different supports and health care resources available. Therefore, family doctors out there are able to make sure veterans are offered the best support possible, wherever they are in the country.

Are there still gaps? Of course there are still gaps, but I believe we are moving toward improvement. My colleagues in Veterans Affairs are definitely making a lot of effort to try to address that.

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

Is there a feedback loop? Are veterans and women veterans reviewing this advice and then giving feedback to see if it actually is effective in its delivery?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Please make your response brief.

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

It was done in consultation with former members. Some veterans were involved in the consultation on building that document. Feedback will be collected through surveys, as Veterans Affairs does on a regular basis, to seek feedback and see if there are any improvements to make.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Thank you.

We will move for five minutes to Mr. Fraser Tolmie, who is actually in the room and ready to go here.

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

Forgive me, Chair. I was getting my hair fixed there.

We have spent numerous meetings speaking with vets. When they go to Veterans Affairs, they're being evaluated on their hearing, their knees, their hips and their back. When we interviewed female veterans, they talked about the equipment and, as Lieutenant-General Bourgon spoke about, the integration and assimilation and the differences.

What strikes me as we sit here tonight is that a lot of veterans, when they leave, are afraid to ask for help, because they've been part of units and they've been independent. The challenges they're facing are PTSD and things that we don't see. I'm wondering if there has been a change in the medical release to include a psychiatric or mental evaluation.

[LGen Lise Bourgon]

First of all, before I give the floor to Major-General Bilodeau, I think we need to look at the transition support we provide now, the formalized support throughout the transition that we didn't used to have. You were military one day. The next day you returned your ID and the commissionaire escorted you to the door. It was thank you for your service and that was it.

This is gone. We're now looking at weeks or months to accompany someone through their transition, and we make sure they have to show up in a brick building, talk to different people and have the chance to talk about their issues. It's an environment where we listen. There's no judgment. There's sharing and support being provided. The opportunities to come forward are there.

I'll give the floor to Marc, and then I think Dan wants to add something.

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

Thank you.

I think you're referring to members who have not already been identified as having health issues when they release. We have a process where we do a medical assessment for each of our members before they release. That's part of the administrative process. That gives us an opportunity to look at whether anything has been unaddressed from a health perspective with those members. Obviously, physical and mental health issues are being looked at. There are supplementary questionnaires. That allows us to provide the care they need.

I'll ask my colleague to comment from a transition perspective.

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

Thank you very much.

I would like to add that we also have a partnership program, the operational stress injury social support program, where group peer support is provided by coordinators and volunteers—70 coordinators and 70 volunteers—with lived experience. They can do so virtually or in person. In that group they're introduced to the transition process and the release process. They make these connections and then they can partake in them.

Approximately 2,000 peers participate in these services monthly—20% of them serving members and the other 80% veterans. We're encouraging their participation and increasing the communications.

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

Okay. Thank you.

I want you to know that from our perspective, the person who's served and the person who's a vet is the same person. We've seen that there's been an area of responsibility where there's been a challenge. The military says, “That's not our problem anymore.” Veterans Affairs says, “You know, this happened here.” We need to address the person and not these two institutions. We have to have a line there, and that's what we're looking for.

I thank you very much for your answers.