Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 12th, 2024

[Jane Hicks]

If I can add one quick point, in terms of the service element, we are actually moving toward asking if they have military service, as opposed to a veteran.... In fact, in the census we had, there was a veteran question and it was exactly that. It was, “Have you served?” as opposed to, “Are you a veteran?”

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Awesome.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much, Mr. May.

Mr. Desilets, you now have the floor for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Harris, did your department intervene to alter the jury's decision regarding the monument?

[Steven Harris]

I'm unfortunately not responsible for that file.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Mr. Desilets, I am stopping the clock for a moment to remind you to ask questions relating to the subject of our study, as Mr. Richards did.

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

All right, Mr. Chair. I admit I was trying my luck.

Mr. Harris, you said it was hard to get figures on homelessness. Don't you think Statistics Canada's last report provides a clear enough picture of homelessness?

[Steven Harris]

Many reports have been written about veteran homelessness. It's always a challenge to come up with specific numbers, and I'm sure we could get better numbers if veterans were identified during the census. It's a hard population to survey and, as one member of the committee just said, there are identification problems.

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

Do you think there has been an increase in veteran homelessness?

[Steven Harris]

I think there has unfortunately been an increase in homelessness in general, given the shortage of houses and accommodation. It's hard to say with any accuracy, but it's something we see in the population at large.

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

Thank you, Mr. Harris.

Mr. Bouchard, how many of the 27 centres in Canada are located in Quebec?

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

Our centres are located in Valcartier, Bagotville and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. We also have a satellite office in Montreal.

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

That's fantastic.

Is the service offered in both official languages outside Quebec?

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

Yes, the service is always offered to transitioning members in both official languages.

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

Are all your employees outside Quebec bilingual?

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

There is bilingual capacity at all transition centres.

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

What do you mean by "capacity"?

[Cmdre Daniel Bouchard]

Not everyone is perfectly bilingual, but someone who can provide the services in his or her second language is always there.

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

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mr. Desilets.

We'll now go to Ms. McPherson for two and a half minutes, please.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Again, thank you for the information you're providing. It's been very helpful.

I'm reflecting on what my colleague Mr. May was asking and on some of the research that's been done on how we support veterans. We know a lot of the research is done in the States. Of course, they have a significantly larger pool.

I'm wondering how you are doing research and getting information. What is that commitment to doing research on the needs of transitioning servicemen and servicewomen? How is that happening?

Perhaps, Mr. Harris, I could start with you.

[Steven Harris]

Sure. Thanks very much for the question.

I think there are lots of ways that research is happening on veterans. Within Veterans Affairs Canada we have a research division. It does not have extensive amounts of money to be able to go out and conduct large-scale research, so we want to be cautious about that. However, we do work with a number of institutions and research institutions that are focused on studying transition and issues with respect to supporting veterans.

The Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research, CIMVHR, is one of them. Veterans Affairs Canada helps fund two centres of excellence. One is on PTSD, which is known as the Atlas Institute. The other is on chronic pain, through McMaster. That helps to support the things it studies and helps both men, women and others, who are going through transition. It looks at what their process is, what barriers they may have and what supports might be needed as well.

We work with Health Canada on a range of other studies that take part particularly in the health domains around what may affect veterans in a particular way. As I mentioned earlier, the census now includes a veteran identifier, and that will provide us with a wealth of information around the status of veterans in Canadian society and how they're feeling.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

How are you ensuring that the perspectives and needs of indigenous veterans, women veterans and veterans from minority groups are being adequately met?

[Steven Harris]

That's a wonderful question.

We were just speaking earlier with some of the folks who are here in attendance around some new initiatives that have been set up within the department.

We've had an office of women and 2SLGBTQI+ in place for a number of years now, which does direct outreach with those particular communities. We've recently set up an indigenous veterans outreach team as well. Those groups, in terms of the veterans affairs groups, are meeting with stakeholders and interacting with individual veterans to understand what their experiences are and what we may be able to do, from a Veterans Affairs Canada perspective, to help them individually and collectively in terms of their needs and how their needs may be different from those of other veterans.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Commander Bouchard, do you have any comment you'd like to make on that as well?