Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2025

[Steven Harris]

I can certainly send you that information.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

That's excellent.

It would be good to have the data on the veteran and family well-being fund, both in Quebec and elsewhere.

Do you have any data on veterans whose first language is French? Do you have that information?

[Christine McDowell]

Mr. Harris, do we have data on veterans' first language?

[Steven Harris]

We have a lot of data on the first official language of veterans.

As for the veteran and family well-being fund, my colleague Mitch Freeman could answer you.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

What is the percentage of francophone veterans in Quebec?

[Mitch Freeman, Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy, Planning and Performance Branch, Department of Veterans Affairs]

Thank you for the question.

I don't have that information with me right now, but I'm happy to provide it to the clerk.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I'd also like to know what percentage of the budget is invested in the veteran and family well-being fund in Quebec. So we'll have a lot of numbers, and we'll be able to do an analysis.

I have one last question. Why are we still doing business with contractors who don't necessarily have the required expertise? Organizations like the Pathways tell us that a little more money is one thing, but that medical resources are also needed. Why aren't we doing more business with duly authorized organizations?

[Christine McDowell]

Thank you for your question.

Mr. Harris, can you answer it?

[Steven Harris]

I work with a number of organizations that support veterans, not only through the well-being fund, but also directly to meet the various existing special needs of our clients, in other words, veterans.

However, it also requires expertise. I don't want to say that the organizations you refer to don't have expertise, but we need people with medical expertise, a specialty and all kinds of things. It's ideal if they have a medical specialty and if they specialize in veterans' history—

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much.

I'm so sorry, Mr. Harris. I can't let you know it's over without interrupting you. I apologize.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

We go to Mrs. Wagantall for five minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Chair.

Mr. Harris, graph 1 of the departmental plan 2025-26 indicates the department's total budget will decrease this next year by $2.2 billion. Can you just very briefly give me a couple of sentences: Is that due to Pension Act war veterans passing on and the need for those dollars to no longer exist in that way?

[Steven Harris]

Madam Chair, I might just ask my CFO colleague to take that question.

[Pierre Tessier]

There are two key factors that demonstrate why you see the decrease to $5.6 billion. The first was that we had temporary funding that was planned to end in March. The second one was no ongoing update to our quasi-stat previously, in the way our funding is booked. These two items have been addressed. Specifically, it's the ongoing funding, the $184.9 million over four years—that's one part of it—and the $40 million ongoing, that will enable us to process more disability claims as they come in, and the—

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

I appreciate that. It's a good answer.

Very briefly, in 2021 a recommendation was accepted by the government that it would provide mental health care funding for family members in their own right, so it was agreed to. I understand VAC can't do anything about that without a legislative change. Has any work been done to determine the costs involved in something like that? Were there any recommendations made to the government in coming to a decision on what they agreed to bring in with legislation? I don't know who should answer that.

[Mitch Freeman]

Certainly, there has been lots of work on making sure that families have mental health care, to the best of our ability, inside of the current legislative framework, as you've highlighted, and a consideration on how to evolve that into the future is work that is under way. There's no direction at the moment, and that would, ultimately, be a change of that legislative framework.

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

It would have to come from the government wanting to have the legislation to kick off that process of determining how that would fit into the overall budget of VAC.

[Mitch Freeman]

Certainly, it would have to be a conversation around a legislative change. That would be a decision of Parliament.

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

Has nothing been done on that to date?

[Mitch Freeman]

I would say that I've not seen anything tabled in Parliament for that type of decision.

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

Okay. Thank you.

I'm sorry. I'll pass it on to....

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

You still have time.

You have two and a half minutes, Blake.

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

I have a question for whoever's most appropriate to answer it....

Ms. McDowell, with regard to the veterans employment and homelessness strategies, can you tell me what the cost, to date, of each of those two programs has been, and then, also, the metrics to determine success for those two strategies?

[Christine McDowell]

Certainly, both of those programs are very important and critical for veterans.

In terms of homelessness, no veteran should be homeless in this country. We take that very seriously and are working with our partners at Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada to implement the veteran homeless program.

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

I'm sorry. I don't mean to interrupt. I mean, I agree with you—we both agree on the importance of the strategies—but I have a very limited amount of time that I'm provided. You know the chair will cut me off if I use it.

I just need to know what the cost to date for the two programs is and what the metrics are for success. I have one follow-up question as well.