Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much, Mr. Morrow.

I have some instructions. Ms. Gaudreau will be talking to you in French. Are you fluently bilingual?

[David Morrow]

Yes, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

That's good since she'll be speaking to you in French for the next six minutes.

Ms. Gaudreau, you may go ahead.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Morrow, for laying out all the challenges veterans experience.

As an entrepreneur myself, I've coached executives, and I often observed a gap in terms of understanding what it takes to become an entrepreneur versus the road ahead.

I didn't come into contact with many veterans then. In the past year, I've come to understand that, in choosing their approach, a person needs to understand what others may have experienced and what the challenges are. At the same time, what preparation have they received? I say that because I did a lot of work related to employability and business development. It's one thing to learn how to access credit, manage capital, build a business in the face of hardship.

Am I wrong to say that employers or business people are not familiar enough with all the skills you have? Am I wrong, or is that the crux of the issue?

I'm very responsive to the idea of establishing a transition centre, in that, sometimes, you don't realize you're 80% ready to start a business. Do you have enough guidance and support? It's easy to say that physically, you're in good health; you're up for it. Mental health, though, combined with everyday life and the fast pace of being a business owner, or even a worker, is something else. Isn't that a piece that needs a tremendous amount of work?

[David Morrow]

If I understand correctly, you're suggesting a boot camp or training centre of sorts for those leaving the Canadian Armed Forces, to give them some formal training. Is that the idea? That's a good question.

I would say yes. Right now, there are organizations working on something similar. An organization here, in Ottawa, is partnering with the University of Ottawa. Earlier, I mentioned Operation Entrepreneur. I went through that program. Yes, learning supports for veterans who want to become entrepreneurs are lacking. In the States, they came up with a solution, an accelerator of sorts. It's called Bunker Labs, and I think it's fantastic.

When it comes to the creation of a government-designed organization or program, one of the flaws I see is that the market isn't taken into account. From my experience with Operation Entrepreneur, I can say yes, it was an excellent program. It was a week of training. I went to the University of Regina for a week. It was great, except for the fact that, at the end of the week, we all had the same questions. Where do we go for funding? What's the next step? The program was developed by a charity, so it wasn't able to provide us with that next-step support. In the States, when a company has completed its training, it has the ability to apply for funding, but it's only for investors. If investors aren't interested, the idea doesn't have full support in the marketplace. I think it would be terrific, but it doesn't exist here, in Canada, yet.

To answer your question, I think a mechanism with all the capacity and resources to provide veterans with a week of training is a good idea. It doesn't have to be a lengthy amount of training. A week-long program would be sufficient to figure out whether it's a good idea. It would be wonderful if veterans had that.

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

A new entrepreneur starting their first business doesn't know where to turn either. They don't know any investors or have anything to offer as collateral. When it comes to accessing capital, do veterans need different follow-up support than new entrepreneurs? Is there a difference or a linkage there?

[David Morrow]

That's a good question. No, I don't think so. We're resourceful.

I hate feeling special.

I'm not looking for a handout. I want to work within the existing system, but right now, there isn't really….

I worked for the Canadian Armed Forces transition group. I helped develop training for people getting out of the armed forces. It covered the process of re‑entering the workforce and various types of jobs. However, there isn't any training related to entrepreneurship. The idea that a veteran could be an entrepreneur is not at all common. The fact that entrepreneurship isn't seen as a normal option for our community is another problem we face. We really have to work on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you, Ms. Gaudreau.

We're now starting the second round.

Mr. Tolmie, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Morrow, for coming and for your service. Your testimony was very enlightening.

There are a few areas I'd like to go over. I'd like to go over entrepreneurship. I'd like to go over your views on other nations. I want to cover benefits, and then I want to go back to other nations.

You mentioned entrepreneurship and that you started your business with your own bank account. What do you think VAC could have done to help you more in starting up?

[David Morrow]

That's a good question. To be honest, I don't know if I want much VAC support on the business side of things. At that point, I wanted them to focus on getting my claims done as quickly as possible, because that was my financial lifeline.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Okay.

[David Morrow]

If that's done, then the entrepreneur side of the house gets a lot easier.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

That's interesting. Is it because you don't want them being part of your business, and you think they're going to be an obstacle as they sit and as they operate right now?

[David Morrow]

I do not want to have to go through any red tape for my company. I can tell you that much. Especially through VAC, with the wait times.... No, I don't want to deal with that.

This wasn't done on purpose, because getting to the point where I have my deck.... We call ourselves “deck daddies” at home now. The benefit is great, so I have that side of the house taken care of, but early on there was a lack of ability to make, let's say, employment income. I couldn't understand why that was the case, so I looked into it. We're one of the few nations that do this. The Americans don't do it at all. They say, “You get your disability, and if you want to make a million dollars a month, you can. That's fine.”

I would say this inadvertently created a lot of entrepreneurs because we realized we could create a corporation, and then we're not getting employment income.

VAC has created the perfect entrepreneurship ecosystem by accident. I always encourage as many veterans as possible to start their own companies. Would I want VAC to actually support it? No, I just want them to recognize that this is something I want to do and not treat me differently because I'm an entrepreneur and I don't want to follow the “back to employment” plan, which basically said I should be a CBC radio host, something that made no sense.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Okay. I'm glad you're not.

I need a bit of clarity here. What you're saying is that you look at the U.S., and they have an office within VA that helps them with starting up a business but that has nothing to do with the benefits. Is that what you're...?

[David Morrow]

No. What I'm saying is that there's a capacity for you to create a business that is recognized by the VA, but they don't offer the actual coaching. They recognize that it's much better handled by the free market.

Everything I've experienced in the United States has been free market, which is the best proving ground. You can create your company and get your business number, a veteran-owned business number. They have that managed through the VA, and then you go out into the wild and do what you need to do to grow your empire.

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

Now I want to go to benefits.

My understanding from your testimony is that VAC dissuades you from starting up and from making money. They interfere, in the sense that if you do make money, they're going to claw back your benefits. You're saying to this committee that they should stay out of that: If you're entitled to benefits, you should be entitled to benefits, and then if you make money, you should be able to make money. Is that correct?

[David Morrow]

Yes—

[Fraser Tolmie, Conservative, Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan, SK]

I mean, they've done the service, so they deserve the benefits that they are entitled to.

[David Morrow]

Well, it's a philosophical question.

In the way we've structured our benefits now, they're no longer like my grandfather's pension from war service. It was based on your injury. You got your pension. You didn't have to deal with a case manager. That was that, and then my grandmother got it once he died.

In our case, it's all based on your rank, which determines how much you make. It's determined from how injured you are. It's determined based on how nice you are to your case managers. There are a lot of avenues by which you can end up getting your benefits cut.

The threats are the worst part, because you get threatened—“Oh, Mr. Morrow, we know you have a podcast; you're making money off this, and you're not declaring income. That's essentially fraud.” That throws me for a loop, because I'm not committing fraud. My business is making money; I'm not declaring income because I'm not making employment income.

That alone is troubling for a lot of us entrepreneurs. We want to create good businesses, but we don't want to be threatened by VAC because we're doing something that's outside the mould.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much, Mr. Morrow.

Madame Auguste will be speaking to you in French for five minutes.

[Tatiana Auguste, Liberal, Terrebonne, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Morrow, thank you for your service.

As you may know, the government has introduced a buy Canadian policy for federal procurement, to prioritize the growth of Canadian businesses across the country. Some concerns and issues have emerged, including a requirement to prioritize veteran-owned or led businesses and the risk of veterans being appointed CEOs in name only or of veteran-owned businesses being purely performative. The idea is to maximize the ability of veterans to benefit from procurement and to make those opportunities available to veterans, while raising relevant considerations.

Here's my question for you. You are a veteran and an entrepreneur, so how would you respond to those concerns if you were advising the people in charge of procurement?

[David Morrow]

If I understand correctly, you're asking how I, as an entrepreneur, would position myself to go after a procurement opportunity.

I think we're very good at building businesses centred on our strengths. However, when I was in the armed forces, it was often said that we were in the dark when it came to submitting applications to organizations here, in Canada. Personally, I have no idea how to go about submitting an application to the Government of Canada. As I said earlier, it would be great if we could get some training. To answer your question, I would say, yes, it's a way to help grow our businesses.

[Tatiana Auguste, Liberal, Terrebonne, QC]

Thank you.

You said that some veteran business owners chose not to disclose the fact that they were veterans to those they were doing business with because it was bad for business.

Do you think a culture change is needed in the private sector? Given your expertise, what is the way to initiate the change, so that veteran business owners are proud to say that they are veterans?

[David Morrow]

That's an excellent question.

I am a Quebecker. All my friends and I were born and raised in Montreal. A lot of businesses are led by veterans, but as I said, being a veteran isn't seen as a good thing. It probably has to do with the fact that Quebec isn't exactly the place where being a veteran is a source of great pride. It may be different in Alberta.

That said, yes, the culture needs to change. The best way to do that is to give successful veteran entrepreneurs a platform, to pat them on the back and say, “Here's a veteran doing excellent work, someone who is successful in their field.” It's important to recognize veteran success stories. Seldom do they garner any media attention, but it would be great for people to see veteran entrepreneurs who are doing well in their fields. That would gradually help to change the culture in Canada.