Veterans Affairs Committee on June 1st, 2026

[Joel Peddle]

Oh, that's a really good question. For myself, I retired in a military town. Because of how I retired, my care team, which I established while I was still serving and going into my medical release, was dealing with the military and PCVRS since they had the contract. It was almost like I had extra help that most veterans don't have. They were ready to go. They advocated for me without me having to do anything. It was very easy there.

I basically posed this question to a lot of people before this meeting: What would be the number one thing you would want changed with PCVRS? A lot of veterans would like this to be with VAC itself. One person put it a lot better than I can: If VAC is in charge of our care, why are they not the ones? Why is this not an internal system within VAC? Why is this being outsourced and not being handled by them?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

That concludes this round of questions.

We will begin the second round.

Mrs. Wagantall for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Ms. Forcier and Mr. Peddle, for your service to us and to Canada. It's deeply appreciated.

I want to start with Mr. Slingerland.

You indicated that you're the executive director of strategic partnerships. In this case, it's specifically as a clinician service affiliated with Lifemark. Would that be accurate? That is something that you—

[Aaron Slingerland]

Yes. In March, the Ottawa Hospital entered into an affiliate agreement to serve in this program for complex mental health assessments. We have in our—

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

That's great. Thank you.

I apologize. I don't like interrupting, but I have a lot of questions.

[Aaron Slingerland]

No problem.

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

In regard to that, can you tell me how many assessments you have completed for Lifemark since March 2025?

[Aaron Slingerland]

I don't know today's current number, but it'd be one a week since the middle of March, when we started.

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

What is your financial agreement with Lifemark?

[Aaron Slingerland]

We are paid a fee to assess the veteran under the program requirements that are outlined in our agreement.

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

What would that fee be?

[Aaron Slingerland]

It is just a little shy of $6,000 per assessment. It's around $5,800. I don't know the exact number offhand.

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

That's one assessment per week at $6,000.

When you do those assessments, when are they shown to the veteran?

[Aaron Slingerland]

The veteran is an active member of the assessment. It's over the course of two days. Then there's a large portion of reporting from the psychiatrist, the psychologist and the occupational therapist. That report is then generated and provided back to Lifemark—to PCVRS.

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

When does the veteran see that report?

[Aaron Slingerland]

That's the disclosure process for them to provide it back to the veteran. Once we are done with the assessment, we don't follow up with treatment or anything like that right now.

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

I understand that. You've assessed a veteran. Don't you feel he should see that assessment first, before it goes to them, to get the sense of whether or not he's happy with the whole process?

[Aaron Slingerland]

If they ask us for the report, we would disclose within the requirements of the pertinent legislation around the release of personal health information.

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

Are they made aware at the beginning of the process that they need to request the assessment?

[Aaron Slingerland]

They are not told explicitly. It's just like if you went to see your family doctor who was doing an exam and writing a report based on their findings of the exam. The information is typically provided back to you if you ask for that information.

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

At this point in time, we're hearing an awful lot that PCVRS has almost done its mandate for the first $500 million or $600 million, and it needs to be reassessed before December, which is a very tight timeline in light of what we're learning.

Would you say that an independent review is important and that a major part of that independent review should be veterans sharing their perspectives with whoever runs that very independent review from VAC and PCVRS?

[Aaron Slingerland]

Yes. I'm a public servant as well, and I think that any time the public service spends that type of money and when there are concerns from the veteran community in particular, it warrants a fulsome review before further funds are applied.

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

Thank you very much. I'm glad to hear that.

Mr. Peddle, what caught my attention very much was something that I hear from other witnesses as well. It's that there's nowhere for a veteran to lodge complaints with PCVRS directly.

Do you want to just elaborate on that a bit? Would you think that's something that should be reviewed significantly when this independent review takes place to determine what needs to be improved with the program?