Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 12th, 2024

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

Thank you very much for the question.

At this time, we have some surveys we're administering. One is the unit release interview that the chain of command and we look after. That provides us with the reasons for release, the attrition data. Then we also have an exit survey that we are administering at this time. We will be utilizing that information to make an analysis on the quality of our services and if there are domains of well-being that were not being met. There's also a post-transition—

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

I'm sorry to interrupt you for a second there. At this point in time we don't actually have anything that determines whether there's been an improvement in terms of the outcomes for releasing members based on these centres. It sounds like you're in the process of creating it—

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

We are in the process of collecting the data.

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

—but at this point we don't actually have an answer to that question.

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

That's correct.

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

Okay. Do you have a sense as to when you will have that data available?

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

It's one year post the full operational capabilities, so by April 2025.

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

Okay. I know our study will be long completed by then, but it would sure be wonderful if you could provide that to the committee when it is available. I think that's obviously very helpful. I certainly hope the numbers will be good. That's I think what we all hope.

Before I move on, can I just ask you this? Later in the meeting today, we're dealing with a motion regarding the monument to the mission in Afghanistan. Obviously, there are many members of that mission still serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, and there would be others who would have transitioned out. I'm just curious if you can tell us what consultation, if any, occurred between Veterans Affairs and the transition group regarding the national monument to the mission in Afghanistan.

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

We worked with our counterparts at Veterans Affairs Canada in order to provide the information to inform the families of the fallen when Veterans Affairs Canada wanted to contact the families to inform them of the monument.

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

Was there any consultation in terms of getting a sense as to what transitioning members or active, still-serving members from that mission thought or what their opinions were?

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

There was no consultation with the transition group.

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

I will move to Mr. Harris or whoever is best positioned to answer. You can direct, Steven. If it's somebody else—

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

You have 30 seconds.

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

I want to ask you about the backlog in claims. I know that there's been lots of cheering that the backlog is said to be largely cleared out, but it seems as though what's really happening is that many of these backlog claims are being sloughed off over to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. Their numbers have gone up, and they're saying that, in some cases like hearing loss, tinnitus and things like that, they're approving well over 90% of the cases.

Is this just a case of pushing that over to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board and then slowing down the process for other veterans who are trying to do appeals?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Quickly. Maybe you can—

[Steven Harris]

The 10-second answer would be no. There are lots of good decisions. We've been making a lot more decisions. As part of making more decisions, sometimes there are more appeals that go forward to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, but we've reduced the backlog, those files beyond 16 weeks, by more than 70%—and that's not by saying “no”. In most cases, it's by saying “yes”.

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

What's the percentage...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

I'm sorry, Mr. Richards. We are already over. You will be able to come back maybe in the third round.

Now I'd like to invite MP Bryan May for five minutes, please.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Before I get to my questions, I want to circle back to earlier today. MP Dowdall brought up some issues regarding homeless veterans. It's a critical question, and it's a good question to talk to today.

I'm wondering, Mr. Harris, if you're familiar with the work being done by Constable Aaron Dale from Toronto, as well as Constable Brian Serapiglia and Constable Dave Cassidy, both from my region, Waterloo region. I'm wondering if you're familiar with the work they're doing on the ground and if you can speak to that a little bit.

[Steven Harris]

I'm not sure I'd be able to provide a lot of detail around it.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

I can.

[Steven Harris]

I know that our local area director works very closely with them on all of their initiatives.

I'll ask Mark in a second to chime in. He knows a little bit more about it than I do. I would say that's a great example of a community initiative that exists across the country that Veterans Affairs works with quite closely. In some cases, it's that kind of organization. In other cases, it could be the Legion, Vets Canada or Homes for Heroes. There are a lot of great organizations across the country that have a focus on helping veterans who are at risk of homelessness or experiencing homelessness.

We work directly with them. We have somebody in every one of our offices who's a lead for homelessness for the area and works with community organizations and local organizations on the ground to make sure that, if we can help someone by providing assistance or benefit services, or if we can refer someone to someone else who can help as well, that's great. It's a lot of interplay.

I might ask Mark to speak to the organization you were raising here.

[Mark Roy]

The after-hours wellness program that's done by the Toronto Police Association has been a very successful project that we've been working with. It's part of my Scarborough office as well, so we do receive a lot of referrals directly from them, after hours, of veterans who have been seen homeless or are potentially going to be homeless.

For us it's a welcome approach because, once we receive that referral, I get a case manager right away to contact the veteran and then try to work with them directly to see what we can do to help them get off the streets. Either it's through our VEF program, our veterans emergency fund, or sometimes we'll work directly with the Legion, Good Shepherd or other community providers that will help us help this person get off the streets.

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you.

For the benefit of my colleagues, this started in Toronto through the Toronto Police Service, if I'm not mistaken, but—I'm going to brag a little bit about the Waterloo regional police—it's really been taken to the next level by the folks at the Waterloo Regional Police Service. In the first six months of implementing it in my riding, they were able to identify and house 86 veterans.

The challenge, to Mr. Dowdall's point, is identification. I think that veterans who are homeless do not identify as veterans. They do not want to identify as veterans. There's an element of shame there. They distance themselves from their service and, therefore, from their benefits.

This program is taking those who are in direct contact with veterans on the street, that being the Waterloo regional police, and training them on how to identify veterans who don't identify as veterans. They don't use the term “veterans”; they use the term “service”. It's fascinating how effective it is. They'll listen for flags. They'll say, “Hey, that reminds me” or “It sounds as if you may have served.” All of a sudden, that pride of service comes back, and they identify as veterans.

It's incredibly simple. It's a one-page form that they utilize. I think that if we can figure out a way to nationalize this, it's going to go a long way. I know they're working on that right now.

I've used up almost all of my time. I'm sorry, but I think this is important. It does identify the root issue, which is that they do not identify. We can provide all the services we want, but if we can't identify the veteran, it becomes very difficult to get them into a housed situation.

I have about 30 seconds left. I don't know if you have any other thoughts on that.

[Mark Roy]

To add to the success, recently we've been getting referrals from the OPP as well, which is a big thing. The program is slowly expanding. Now my Kingston and Trenton offices have been receiving referrals as well.

Yes, it is a great success.