Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, good evening. Thank you for the invitation to appear here today.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that I'm speaking to you today from Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq people.
Although I've testified before this committee on many occasions in the past, I will begin with a brief introduction of our organization to benefit those of you who are not familiar with us or our work.
VETS Canada, or Veterans Emergency Transition Services, is a federally registered charity with an aim to provide immediate on-the-ground assistance to veterans who are homeless, at risk of becoming homeless or otherwise in crisis. We have hundreds of dedicated volunteers across the country. To date we have responded to thousands of requests for assistance from veterans and their families from coast to coast to coast, 24 hours a day and seven days a week, including holidays.
Requests for assistance come to us in various ways. They come through our toll-free phone line, website or social media platforms. Some come through referrals from other organizations or agencies. However, the majority of our referrals, an average of almost 80% over the past year, come from Veterans Affairs Canada. This means, of course, that we interact with Veterans Affairs regularly—daily, actually.
Regarding the fairness in the service provided to veterans, I have three main points to present. The first is the issue of inconsistency. Our experience is that there are inconsistencies in how information about benefits is communicated to the veteran. Often case managers and veteran service agents, VSAs, are very helpful and forthcoming with information on the benefits and services available to veterans. Still, there are times when, if the veteran doesn't ask the right questions, they don't know what they are entitled to. Veterans who are in crisis, perhaps struggling with mental health issues, facing homelessness or maybe even already homeless aren't usually in the right frame of mind to navigate the process of applying for benefits, especially if they don't even know what those benefits are. It would be helpful to have a more standardized process in place when veterans reach out to VAC, especially if it is their first interaction with the department.
For example, maybe there could be a checklist of standard questions to ask the veteran to gain a fulsome picture of their situation and their service history. This would then inform the case manager or VSA in determining which benefits and services the veteran might quality for. Currently, we are seeing some veterans who receive everything they need from VAC, and then others who meet the same criteria but don't even know what is available to them. The case manager or VSA hadn't asked the right questions, or any questions at all.
In 2018 the veterans emergency fund was launched. Because of the urgent nature of requests for the benefit, the eligibility criteria are flexible. It is a benefit for which case managers, VSAs or veteran service team managers have the authority to determine eligibility for up to $2,500. In exceptional circumstances, an area director can approve up to $10,000. The issue is that every case manager, VSA or veteran service team manager interprets the policy differently. Still on the point of inconsistency, we have seen situations where veterans have received what would appear to be preferential treatment simply based on the fact that those veterans were considered high-profile.
The second point I would like to mention is that there aren't enough bilingual staff members at VAC. As a federal government department, it is often assumed that all VAC employees are bilingual, but that is not the case. Because of this, francophone veterans aren't always able to readily receive service in the language of their choice, particularly if they reside outside of the national capital region or the province of Quebec. We've recently learned that benefits applications made in French are taking much longer to be adjudicated. We found that statistic quite disturbing in a country with two official languages.
My final point is on the service provided to veterans who identify as LGBTQ2+. In 2020 we received a grant from the LGBT Purge Fund for a one-year pilot project. In the interest of time, I won't go into the details of the project. However, we found that when veterans who identified as LGBTQ2+ are in crisis, they, like all veterans, want to feel supported with respect and without judgment. During the course of the year, all of the veterans who identified as LGBTQ2+ stated that they felt accepted, respected and welcomed by our staff and volunteers.
To ensure that our staff and volunteers continue to provide support in that manner, we decided to add specific training to our list of mandatory training. Throughout the one-year pilot project and since the end of the project, many veterans who identified as LGBTQ2+ disclosed that they often don't feel accepted or respected when receiving services from VAC.
Many case managers and VSAs lack knowledge of the LGBT purge, so education on that shameful period of time in our history would be beneficial. Case managers and VSAs would also benefit from training that gives them a better understanding of the issues faced by veterans who identify as LGBTQ2+ and in treating all veterans with the fundamental respect they deserve.
In closing, Mr. Chair, I will summarize our three recommendations: one, create a more standardized intake process to be utilized when veterans make initial contact with the department; two, ensure that all newly hired VAC employees are bilingual moving forward, particularly those in service delivery and those responsible for adjudicating claims; and, three, provide more training to staff.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
