Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 12th, 2023

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

Going once...?

Mr. Harris, it's good to see you.

[Steven Harris]

I'm happy to jump in.

It's nice to see you, even though I feel like a leftover.

The answer to the question is that we actually already do what you've indicated in terms of communicating back and forth and working with our Canadian Armed Forces colleagues on anything we see as a trend line.

This happens for women or men veterans. If we see changes in the kinds of applications we're getting, if we see specific kinds of things changing, we do communicate. We have a health professionals group in my own organization that works very closely as well with the Canadian Armed Forces health services group to identify, to share research with one another—

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

Mr. Harris, thank you. You answered my question.

My next questions are these: Could you provide the committee with the trends that you're seeing, specifically around women and sex-specific injuries and illnesses? What have you identified as a trend, as you just spoke about?

[Steven Harris]

Sure. What I was talking about from a high-level perspective is that the groups work together to share any information. If we see trends that are different between men and women veterans—

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

That is excellent. Are you going to table that with the committee?

[Steven Harris]

I can share information with you. Yes.

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

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

We know that women veterans are calling for reproductive health research that follows them from military to veteran status, while also capturing the possible health impacts that their service had on their offspring. Of course, I hope everybody in this room has heard the testimony from the women veterans and sees how important this is.

I'm wondering what the department is doing to ensure that women's reproductive health is considered in the health coverage and services provided by VAC.

I want to remind everyone here of the question I asked the minister. One challenge, of course, is that women are often not coming forward, or when they do come forward, the assessment around their health care isn't done properly. For example, we heard that some women were getting breast reductions to be able to wear their kit.

When these things happen, I want to know if that is actually being followed up. What is VAC doing to address the specific reproductive health issues that have been a consequence of their service? How is that communication happening between the CAF and VAC to address it?

I'm assuming it's Mr. Harris answering again.

[Steven Harris]

I might start, and then I might ask Mr. Tessier to talk a little bit about research from that point of view.

We are consistently looking at the testimony that appears here. We look forward to the recommendations and to the report that comes back from the committee on this very extensive research into women's health.

Whether it's reproductive health or women's health overall, we continue to examine existing research, new research that's done within the community, within the Five Eyes community as well as others. CIMVHR, our centres of excellence—

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

Can I just pause you there?

[Steven Harris]

Yes, absolutely.

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

Thank you.

Just for clarification, you're talking about reviewing other research done with our partners. Could you reference any research or commitment to research that Canada has around these particular concerns?

[Steven Harris]

In this case, I might ask Mr. Tessier to respond to the kinds of research that VAC undertakes and is able to do.

[Pierre Tessier]

Thank you for the question.

As we work very closely with our CAF health professional colleagues, we do look at research that's under way in the CAF and research that's under way within VAC. These are some of the future VAC projects that I have here today that are specifically around this area: examining barriers to service for LGBT purge survivors; investigating women veterans' reproductive challenges, specifically looking at that issue and doing further research; and scoping new intimate partner violence among veterans.

We are continuing that research while working very closely with our CAF colleagues to exchange the research so that we don't duplicate research and can build off what we have.

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

We've heard through testimony in the women's study that one of the challenges is not having enough Canada-focused research on both sides.

The follow-up questions are these: What is the commitment to invest in this research? How is the department collaborating with the CAF to make sure the research is done on both sides, so that we can see the collaboration between the service and then the response after service?

[Pierre Tessier]

Thank you for the question.

In the 18 months since I've joined Veterans Affairs, we have formed a research and policy ADM steering committee and a DG steering committee to review the research that is happening currently and the research that's being planned so that we can build off it. The research I've mentioned is definitely looking to be in the pending and approval stages, so we're definitely committed to this research.

We're also looking forward to the study on women veterans that's occurring today and also taking some of those recommendations into our research as we have it today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much.

For the next round, we're going to have four interventions.

I will invite Mrs. Cathay Wagantall, for five minutes, please.

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

Thank you so much, Chair.

My first question is around the role of our minister, who is also the Associate Minister of National Defence. I see that she has a significant number of people working with her.

Are you all just on the back side of things? Who is it who works alongside her in this role as Associate Minister of National Defence?

Mr. Harris, do you know?

[Steven Harris]

That's correct. We just work with her in supporting her role from a Veterans Affairs point of view. That said, we do a lot of work with our Canadian Armed Forces colleagues at the ADM level and throughout many working groups as well, so we're in close contact with them.

Her role as Associate Minister of National Defence is focused mainly on personnel.

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

Okay, I just want to know then.... The deputy minister doesn't have a specific role in relation to working with her on things of concern. We're talking about a seamless transition here. I think that's why this position was created—which appears great.

I'm asking this question: Is there anyone designated, the way we have a deputy minister for Veterans Affairs Canada, to her services in regard to being the Associate Minister of National Defence?

[Steven Harris]

No, and I think that actually speaks to the seamless nature of it. The deputy minister works with his partner at DND—

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

Thank you. This is why I'm asking this question.

We had a young woman veteran testify last week, Stephanie Hayward...and I hope that the minister has followed up with her.

From her testimony, which I hope you would all read, her concerns are with VAC. She faced an atrocious gang rape within the Canadian Armed Forces. When she reported it and whatnot, she ended up in isolation until she was removed.

When she finally tried to get assistance through VAC, the bureau of pensions advocates discovered that there were files that belonged with her medical files that were stored elsewhere. If they had not looked and found them, she would not have known they existed.

I want to know whether our Associate Minister of National Defence, who is responsible for Veterans Affairs, has looked into this to know where those files were hidden, whether there are more and whether or not those files will be released to be with the rest of the files in relation to those particular veterans.

Are you aware of any work—being in association with her on pretty well everything that she does—that she's done or any research into what happened here with the Canadian Armed Forces and those files?

[Steven Harris]

I'm not able to speak on behalf of the minister herself. What I can say is that we continue to work to ensure that the transition for every Canadian Armed Forces member is handled efficiently and effectively.

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

I would like to know specifically about those files. If it's possible to have it on the record, we ask that those questions be provided to the minister and to the deputy minister to respond to this committee in that regard.

We have a really serious issue here around the treatment of women specifically with military sexual trauma. This one was very hard for me to stomach, especially the fact that her injuries impacted her ability to have children. VAC has not responded. This is something that I think we need to work significantly on.

We have talked a lot about medical files over the last eight years and how they aren't accessible to our veterans. I'm understanding that more and more. My understanding is that VAC doesn't have them. The veterans are considered third party, and in Canada they.... There's no access.

Has there been any movement on this issue? It was part of the recommendations that medical files be digitized and become property available to veterans at any time that they may want to have them.

[Steven Harris]

The medical file of a particular Canadian Armed Forces serving member or released member is not a property of Veterans Affairs. What we ask for are relevant sections of a veteran's medical file to be provided to us to be able to adjudicate in cases—

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

Can I ask—?