Veterans Affairs Committee on June 1st, 2023

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Thank you.

We have just enough time, I think, for the last two rounds that we have left. The rounds are about four minutes each for the Conservatives and the Liberals.

We'll go to four minutes for Mr. Fraser Tolmie.

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

Thank you, Chair.

When I was serving with the military, we went through—forgive me if I have the wrong acronym—SHAPE training.

[A voice]

SHARP.

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

Okay, SHARP training. Obviously, I wasn't sharp.

In our conversations tonight, you've talked about assimilation and inclusion. Has SHARP training changed to accommodate this new way forward?

[LGen Lise Bourgon]

That's a very good question. If you remember the SHARP training, it was one day when everyone focused.

Honestly, as a woman, it was very...because I was the cause. I was in a squadron full of men, and then they'd turn to me and say, “We're here because of you.” It was not really the right spot to be in.

SHARP training has been replaced. Now we're doing training and education throughout someone's career. When they join the military, they need to sign a piece of paper saying, “These are the values of the CAF. These are the behaviours that we expect. These are the behaviours that we don't tolerate.” It's right from the get-go. When they arrive in Saint-Jean, it's the same thing.

Throughout each step of someone's training and education, we add a tiny little bit, because we all change, and it has to be tailored to the level of individuals throughout their entire careers. It's no longer that mandatory one-day training or that one-hour training that you could have lived through in the past. It's embedded into everything we're doing.

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

Okay, I'll be very upfront and honest with you: I thought it was great training.

It wasn't that I looked forward to doing it, but I thought, “Wow, this is going to be beneficial.” I've always used it and gone back to it. We go through similar training as members of Parliament.

It's not just one day, so what are the criteria? What is the course like now? Is it two days? Is it ongoing? Could you share that?

[LGen Lise Bourgon]

The answer is that it depends at which level we are seeing this. It's a lot more about vignette and discussion versus PowerPoint presentations and saying you shall do this and you will not do this. This is a discussion on a group basis.

We also have a great app that we just launched about ethos. We put our people in different situations, and they can decide which CAF values apply in which circumstances. Then we can discuss it as a group. Instructors can educate and all those things.

It's more of a daily living event of learning and growing together, versus a mandatory one-hour PowerPoint presentation that you get on the Friday of a bad weather day. This is in everything that we're doing.

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

Okay. That brought back some memories.

Major-General Bilodeau, you mentioned earlier that when someone is released, there's an issue with their medical files.

One thing with the military—and this is a challenge that we're dealing with—is standardization. You're saying when someone is released and they go to a different province, there's an issue because there's not a standard you can use in order to transfer those medical files. Only Alberta and Nova Scotia seem to be able to adapt.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

I'll ask that your response be as brief as possible.

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

Mr. Chair, I was referring to the electronic health record systems, which are different in each province or each region of the same province. That prevents us from being able to develop an interface that would transfer the file directly from our records to the provincial or regional or local hospitals that are out there. That's a challenge.

Does that answer your question?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Thank you.

For our final round of questioning for the meeting, we will have four minutes from Mr. Churence Rogers.

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Mr. Chair, I don't have a particular question for the witnesses.

I do want to say a big thank you for your testimony and for giving us the benefit of your experience. Many of you are very experienced and in senior positions, so it was great to hear from you this evening.

I would ask, though, as I've done many times, that if you think there's something we need to know or there are recommendations you want to present to our committee, please do that and forward that information to our clerk so that we, as committee members, will make sure we don't miss what might be some very important points.

We talked about witnesses who have given past testimony and have identified some very challenging issues that they faced. We keep focusing on how we can deal with their transition from the military to a retirement or back into civilian life. I would appreciate any information that you can provide.

Mr. Chair, that's the extent of what I wanted to do in the final slot here this evening.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Mr. Chair, is there any more time in that four minutes?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

I don't know whether the witnesses have anything they want to say in response. If not, you have about two minutes and 15 seconds.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I thought so. Thank you.

I want to follow up on Mr. Tolmie's question.

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

That's because it was a good question.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I won't make the mistake that Mr. Desilets made.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Mr. Bilodeau, my question is along the same lines as Mr. Desilets' and it concerns electronic medical records. If I understand correctly, only two provinces, Nova Scotia and Alberta, have electronic records. Our government's investments in health care this past year will encourage other provinces to follow suit.

What are those two provinces doing differently? Give me some examples, if you could. I know how things should be, but I'd like to know how they actually are.

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

I cannot comment on what's happening in the provinces with respect to their medical records.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I'm just talking about the two provinces that have this service.

[MGen Marc Bilodeau]

All I can say is that electronic health records are going through a transformation. We're now in the second and third generation of these files and we have a better understanding of what we need. Better standards are also in the works, which will allow us to transfer data more easily in the future.

There are some issues with our own electronic health record system, which is now over 15 years old. It's starting to get a little wobbly, so to speak, and we're currently modernizing it. We have no choice but to modernize it if we want the various systems to work together. We need to be able to transfer medical data to the provinces.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Thank you very much, and thank you to all of our witnesses for your excellent contributions tonight and for the responses to all of the questions.

We will adjourn the meeting. We'll see everybody back here to continue this study on Monday.

Thanks again to our witnesses and to everyone.

The meeting is adjourned.