Good afternoon, Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear.
I read the order authorizing this study to have two objectives, which are to learn more about the immediate transition period for individuals leaving military service and to learn how Veterans Affairs Canada and veterans-serving organizations, or VSOs, can reach new veterans to inform them of their options in relation to Veterans Affairs Canada.
Both objectives are laudable, but I also say they're not enough if the study's target audience for change starts with, relies on and is limited to Veterans Affairs Canada or if the role of VSOs is limited to assisting new veterans dealing with VAC. Both starting points place Veterans Affairs as the funnel and decision-maker of what is needed and funded, as well as limit the purpose of VSOs at the front end for members leaving uniformed service. Both signal status quo to me.
What if this study considers a whole-person, whole-community vantage and advantage? What if the study is to bring in the very community that veterans are choosing and the activities and services they will use? What if it is a national action plan? What if the approximately 60 veterans-supporting organizations across Canada—and I'm estimating here—and total 250 supporting organizations in communities mapped by Respect Canada, which Veterans Affairs might turn to first, are part of a much larger existing non-profit sector of approximately 170,000 incorporated organizations? What if they were engaged?
It is the sector assigned to economic, social and political roles to create a common public good for Canada, contributing $185.7 billion, or 9%, of Canada's GDP, as measured by Canada Revenue Agency in 2020—larger than construction or transportation sectors, for example. Excluding government non-profits—and there are such entities, with universities and hospitals as examples—the sector's community and business non-profit corporations employed approximately 630,000 full-time employees, 238,000 part-time employees and performed over two billion volunteer hours in 2017.
It is almost the very purpose and definition of a seamless transition for military members to continue to serve Canada. The high skills learned by and the motivation of service members as they leave CAF have ready application, but this transition off-ramp connecting veterans and the sector is not built and is untapped. I can offer four specific examples from presentations I have given over 2022 and 2023 about this topic. They are examples of military-civilian estrangement, missed opportunity and national urgency when servicewomen and servicemen are not organized to contribute their skills, their experience and the advantage they bring to local community and civil society problem-solving.
I speak about being bold and not relying on Veterans Affairs to chart a course. I say this based on the knowledge I have gained from my 20 years of uniformed service and my now 32 years of community service in the non-profit sector—also called the community sector, civil society sector, Canada's third economic sector, the non-government sector or volunteer sector, have it as you will—as a founder, chair, board member and volunteer for tens of non-profit organizations and groups; as a member of civil society media, school board, university, public health, municipal, regional, provincial and federal advisory committees; and, for the last seven years, as a veteran focused on building Servicewomen's Salute as a non-profit proxy military association and veteran-serving support.
In sum, I operate in and see the imperative of Canada's non-profit sector to the stability of Canadian democracy, civil society, economy, defence and security. If we think of this as a national action plan, I am mystified to not see this third sector strategically, intentionally and operationally brought into Veterans Affairs Canada's and the Canadian Armed Forces' thinking, veteran and citizen engagements and civil society applications.
Thank you.