Veterans Affairs Committee on Oct. 5th, 2026

[Frédéric Thibault-Chabot]

Absolutely. We are a veteran-friendly institution. There is a registry of veteran-friendly institutions and we are listed on it. Any veteran who wishes to continue their studies can go wherever they prefer, but we are recognized as a veteran-friendly institution because we offer services and are continuing to introduce new ones to support veterans on their journey.

[Claude DeBellefeuille]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much.

Next is Mr. Gill for five minutes.

[Sukhman Gill, Conservative, Abbotsford—South Langley, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to start off by saying that I am a new member of the committee. This is my first time speaking officially at this committee, so I want to thank all of the members.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[Sukhman Gill, Conservative, Abbotsford—South Langley, BC]

Thank you very much.

I want to thank everyone who is here today and all of the members across the aisle for their continuous work and collaboration to make sure we can excel in matters of military personnel and excel at the veterans affairs committee. Thank you very much.

To those across the aisle, thank you. Congratulations to all our chairs and vice-chairs as well.

Thank you very much to the witnesses for attending today. It's been quite insightful listening to you guys.

I want to start with Mr. Morrow.

First of all, thank you very much, sir, for your 15 years of service.

Wow. I listened to your story and read a little bit about you before. The way that you transitioned into entrepreneurship was quite fascinating.

There are a couple things that I wrote down here while you were speaking. It was the part about being employable and how it came with a cost. You described it like being in a trap, and you said that we need to think about how we need to compensate our injured veterans.

Could you give me a little bit more and go a little deeper into that?

[David Morrow]

Absolutely. It's pretty straightforward. We have to choose between employment and our injury benefits. The unfortunate reality is that just because you find gainful employment doesn't mean your injuries go away. Like I said, you can work despite your injuries.

It's the framing of disability that we get hung up on. Because we've been determined to be, let's say, 40%, 50% or 60% disabled, the thinking is that it means you should be in a wheelchair and you shouldn't be able to do a basic manual labour position, but how can you be running a company if you're disabled? It's because of the terminology and the fact that we don't understand the fundamental difference between civilian disability and military disability.

I joined when I was 19. My quality of life will never be the same. I joined because I knew what I was getting myself into. I volunteered to go to war, and I knew it would come with consequences. All we're asking is that we get some monetary compensation. I will never reach the potential that I could have achieved. All of my friends who didn't join the military are CEOs and have C-suite jobs. They have beautiful careers.

I don't get to have that career. I don't get to have that life, because I decided to serve. I'm not resentful of it, but I would really appreciate it if I, and my brothers and sisters in arms, had the capacity to go to work and find the jobs that we really wanted so that we could contribute and give back and continue to serve while retaining benefits for injuries that don't go away just because we have jobs.

[Sukhman Gill, Conservative, Abbotsford—South Langley, BC]

Thank you for that.

What would you like to see from the federal government to make entrepreneurship a more realistic option for veterans and people who want to get into entrepreneurship after their retirement?

[David Morrow]

I've spoken before this committee on this very topic, and I'll make the same points.

I don't feel that entrepreneurship should be the domain of government, because—let's be honest—they're not good at it. That's why they're government. They have other functions. Opening up and getting rid of the roadblocks is the important part for government.

The current roadblock that exists right now is that there is no structure to identify veteran service organizations. Whether we're a for-profit, non-profit or charity, we operate as a veteran-owned company by name only. There's no official designation. If we were to incorporate that at the governmental level and open that up as part of what Veterans Affairs does, which is exactly how they do it in the United States, then we'd start seeing a better ecosystem. We don't really have what we in the military call “left and right of arcs” to function in between.

[Sukhman Gill, Conservative, Abbotsford—South Langley, BC]

Okay.

To continue on that, what kinds of supports would you highlight that made a difference for you or your fellow colleagues and friends in arms?

[David Morrow]

I started out with the Prince's operation entrepreneur program. It's no longer in existence, but it was a week of entrepreneurial training that was paid for by the charity. I think that is amazing.

Another example would be, essentially, the ability to get yourself healthy and well. I'm biased, obviously. That's what I do. In order to take the next step into entrepreneurial adventures, you need to be healthy. I always say that's the apex of the health pyramid. You need to have your financial stability and your health, and then from there, you can start looking at entrepreneurial ventures.

I think most veterans miss those first two steps. If they can get those secured with the help of Veterans Affairs, then the entrepreneurial journey becomes a lot easier.

[Sukhman Gill, Conservative, Abbotsford—South Langley, BC]

Thank you.

Is that it?

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Yes. I'm sorry, Mr. Gill. I was nicely reminded by my colleague on my left.

I will give the floor for five minutes to Mrs. Chatel, who is also new to this committee.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to thank the witnesses.

Mr. Morrow, thank you for your service. If you have any specific proposals regarding these amendments, I would appreciate it if you could submit them to us in writing. It would be very interesting to examine them in greater depth and to look at the more technical aspects as well. You have made some good suggestions. Thank you very much for that.

I now turn to the representatives from La Cité. I am an MP for the Outaouais region. As you know, many of my constituents work for you. So, I would like to thank you for undertaking this excellent initiative to recognize skills. I think it will be very helpful.

Let me tell you something. I am concerned, because we are investing heavily in defence. It has been said that we are going to create 125,000 jobs in defence alone. We have dual-use technologies, meaning they are used in both the military and civilian sectors.

My question is very simple. We have a pool of veterans. This pool is set to grow, as more and more of them are approaching the age of 40. They are young people, like my colleague on the opposite side of the House. However, I went on a tour this summer. I met people from the aerospace sector on the south shore, particularly those involved in aircraft maintenance, technology or engines, in both the military and civilian sectors. They are turning down contracts due to a labour shortage. They are turning them down. One small business told me that it could employ 300 people and that it would have work first thing tomorrow morning, but that it has to turn down work.

You work in this environment; can you explain to me what is going on?

[Frédéric Thibault-Chabot]

I don't think we have the strategy to take people's skills and channel them towards where they want to go, if they wish to return to the same field—that desire is very important. However, we need to refocus them, recognize the skills they have developed and find the simplest pathway to connect them with those employers. This pathway must be much more structured and robust, because that is exactly what is needed.

We heard people say earlier that employers need to recognize the value of these skills. I do not understand how they could fail to do so, because veterans, by virtue of their experience, possess a wealth of skills not found among recent graduates. If we combine that with technical skills and all the other skills relating to interpersonal and practical abilities, it's the perfect combination. Bringing all of that together is complex.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC]

I have another question for you. Why wait until you're a veteran? The defence industrial strategy states that we need to bring the military and civilian worlds closer together. We have dual-use technologies. Artificial intelligence is going to play a part in all of this. Cybersecurity is just as relevant to banks and businesses as it is to the armed forces. So, we have all these dual-use technologies. Why not have dual-use skills? Whether we're in the armed forces or in the civilian sector, we work with the same technologies. Why wait until we're veterans to acquire this skill, rather than already having it by the time we become veterans?

[Annie Chartrand]

It is certainly true that, at present, we are working more closely with veterans. However, we are currently seeking to forge much closer links with reserve units, precisely so that reservists can undertake their military training whilst studying at college. We could adapt the timetables. It's up to us to adapt, and it's easy.

We could allow reservists who need to be deployed overseas or take part in an exercise to do so. We could easily adjust the timetables and create cohorts of reservists to train people in a particular field. This is something we're currently exploring.

[Sophie Chatel, Liberal, Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Morrow, do you have anything to add to clarify matters for us? What is your perspective?

[David Morrow]

I was a reservist for 15 years. While I was studying for my bachelor's degree at McGill University, there were often times when, if I had to be deployed or take part in a week-long exercise in Florida, my only choice was to go, and fail my course. I had no other choice.

So, I support schools that are able to provide an education for reservists. Reserve units have a very deep pool of skills, but we're not making use of them because we're not yet in that mindset.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marie-France Lalonde]

Thank you very much. That concludes our second round of questions.

Mr. Morrow, it's always a pleasure to have you here, and thank you for your service.

As the chair, but also the proud member for Orléans, it was a pleasure to welcome you today, Mr. Thibault-Chabot and Madame Chartrand.

I have a bit of housekeeping before we officially say goodbye to our witnesses.

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 8:15 a.m. We will be joined by the Minister of Veterans Affairs and representatives from Veterans Affairs Canada to discuss the supplementary estimates (A) 2026–2027.

The meeting is adjourned.