Veterans Affairs Committee on April 27th, 2026

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

Can I just interrupt you, Minister? I'm sorry.

I hear from many of them. They have absolutely felt ignored through the course of this year.

I now need to share my time with my colleague, Mr. Tolmie.

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

Thank you, Minister, for joining us today.

You've been in this role for just under a year. In your opening testimony today, you said that your decisions are not incidental but intentional.

I'd like to ask you about your intentional decisions when it comes to the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires—an 80-year-old contract that employs thousands of veterans. You've decided to cancel that, but you're going to be renewing the PCVRS contract.

As my colleague from across the aisle said, could you give me your mindset on how you came to those decisions?

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

As with all government policies, we know it will evolve as goals change. Our focus is on ensuring that veterans are supported in the employment that best meets their needs and skills and where they are in their experiences today.

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

Thank you.

Are you saying to me that those who are employed with the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires are unhappy with their employment?

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

No, I'm not saying that. I am saying that we are looking to expand opportunities to meet the needs of veterans.

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

Explain to me how PCVRS is going to do that. I believe the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires is an awesome organization. They've done some yeoman's work here. I just find this decision very unsatisfactory.

I'd like to know how you came to that decision.

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Madam Chair, I don't agree with the member's assessment—comparing the PCVRS rehabilitation contract and the policy of first right of refusal with the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires.

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

Is my time done?

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Yes. Thank you very much. I apologize, Mr. Tolmie.

Thank you, Minister.

For five minutes, we'll go to Mr. d'Entremont.

[Chris d'Entremont, Liberal, Acadie—Annapolis, NS]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Minister, thanks for being here today to answer our questions.

As we try to decipher budgets, which tend to be complicated, things can be taken out of context a lot of times. Sometimes there's a bit of, I would say, feigned controversy coming from our friends across the way.

I want to go back to the bureau of pensions advocates for a minute.

Can you clarify what it is, what it isn't, and how investing on the front lines is a better way to look at this? We want to be able to help veterans on the front lines so they don't have to go to the bureau of pensions advocates. That is what I'm understanding here.

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

As I've already mentioned, we are making an adjustment back to steady-state operations following the conclusion of the temporary funding. We have the investment of $184.9 million over four years. That is to invest in service modernization and service delivery.

The opportunity here is working with veterans at the front end of their journey with Veterans Affairs Canada, in order to support them, engage with them and ensure that the process for reviewing disability applications.... We made investments there so that, hopefully, veterans don't have to go through the appeals process. We are not looking to reduce the appeals. We're not looking to change that. This is about supporting veterans at the beginning—supporting them in their process with Veterans Affairs Canada.

The bureau will continue to be available to support veterans, but our hope is that, by engaging with them earlier and putting resources at the beginning, we can support them before they need to get to that point.

[Chris d'Entremont, Liberal, Acadie—Annapolis, NS]

On the other side, a lot of times, when people come to our offices, they're normally at their wits' end. They've had some kind of negative review or have run into a problem—that kind of stuff. We end up hearing, probably, the worst of the worst as it goes along.

What kinds of positives do we have in the process? How are things going for real?

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you for mentioning that. I have the opportunity to engage with veterans across the country, as many of our colleagues do. While things aren't perfect—that's the truth—what I'm hearing is.... Even as recently as Saturday night, I was engaged with a veteran in my community who said, “My process has gone smoother than it previously did.” They are finding that the engagement is improving.

We honestly discussed how, yes, it could continue to be enhanced. That is the work we are continuing to do with our investments. Overall, the majority of conversations are about things being okay. They're better than they were. We will continue to make those investments to support veterans in their journey with Veterans Affairs Canada.

[Chris d'Entremont, Liberal, Acadie—Annapolis, NS]

In your opening remarks, you talked about the extra monies that are going into the department. I think it was $41 million there. Can you maybe talk about whether that means hiring, or does that mean opening new offices? Where would that investment go?

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Of the $184.9 million, there is $24 million that has been identified for IT infrastructure to support the processes. For the specifics as to what else that means, I would refer to the department officials to break that down further.

[Chris d'Entremont, Liberal, Acadie—Annapolis, NS]

I'll change the subject, because I know that I have only about 30 seconds left. When we talk to veterans, we have veterans of the Second World War and the Korean War, and we have more modern vets. Do we treat them all the same, or do we look at them considering how they have served our country?

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Each veteran's experience is going to be unique. We can't treat all veterans the same, because each of them has their own experience. That would be whether we were comparing two veterans who served in the same conflict or whether we're comparing veterans. Each individual veteran needs to be looked at for their own unique experiences and for their needs in terms of where they are today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

That's excellent. Thank you.

Ms. Gaudreau, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

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

Madam Chair, I would like to go back to the figure I mentioned earlier. The Quebec Veterans Foundation relied on a document that refers to three partners aligned behind a shared vision to highlight the $3.33 figure, among other things. I'd also like to thank the executive director, Jonathan Audet. That information exists and I can send it to you. So, honestly, when you spoke earlier, I was completely taken aback and lost my train of thought.

I'm a bit flabbergasted to see that you're trying to promote what's going well. This is unacceptable. Right now, we're talking about veterans who have served their country and who were told we'd be there for them until the end. We're trying to talk about resilience. We're talking about lives. We just finished a study on the high suicide rate among veterans. A staggering number of disappointed and frustrated people who no longer trust the system are coming to see me. People are telling us there's absolutely no chance they'd encourage their children to do what they did. These people travel and see what's happening elsewhere.

Minister, you've been in office for a year and, during question period, if I understood correctly, you mentioned that there would be an independent investigation of the vocational rehabilitation and support services program, or VRSSP, to address its shortcomings, because it's currently under review.

Will you commit to doing that investigation now?

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

My understanding of the question is whether we will undertake a review of the PCVRS program.

During my previous appearance, I made that commitment of an independent review that will be undertaken of the PCVRS. Work has been progressing on that, and we anticipate having more to share in the coming months.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much, Ms. Gaudreau.

Mr. Viersen, you have five minutes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the Minister for being here today.

I want to thank Madame Gaudreau for teeing this off for me a little bit.

You're a new minister to this role, but we've experienced as opposition members for a number of years how Liberals have fed their friends. We've seen the We Charity scandal. We've seen the green slush fund scandal. We've seen this launch pad corruption scandal over the last number of weeks.

This PCVRS feels similar. It feels like a pump-and-dump scheme. It feels like the government, your department, was managing case files and doing this kind of thing, and probably has the capability to manage all of these case files, yet kind of attached on the side is an appendage, so we got this PCVRS along the way. How does it make you feel that veterans have been used and veterans services have been used to drive up the stock prices of particular companies?

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Madam Chair, I disagree with my colleague's assessments. I think there are many pieces there that I don't agree with. The PCVRS program was brought in for a holistic approach to support veterans in their rehabilitation journey.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Would you say that your ministry is not capable of doing that?

[Jill McKnight, Liberal, Delta, BC]

It is important that we look at as many opportunities as possible to meet the needs of veterans in ways that—