Veterans Affairs committee  I would have to take that question away. Familyforce.ca is the website operated by the military family services program, so I would have to defer to them for the exact statistics and updates. In terms of linkage to My VAC Account, that has not yet come up in discussions, but certainly there's linkage and opportunities in connection with our own Veterans Affairs website.

Veterans Affairs committee  This pilot project came about as a result of two things. One was that the June 2014 report of this committee suggested we invest more in support for veterans and their families. The other was that in our mental health initiatives over the years, we wanted to make a more significant effort, particularly for the ill and injured.

Veterans Affairs committee  The pilot project is a four-year pilot project. We've received funding over five years and we are providing that funding to the military family services program. Some lead work began about a year ago. The official launch was October 2015. As part of the pilot project, there will be a review at the one-year point, which will help us make whatever adjustments that may be necessary, including looking at the reach of the project.

Veterans Affairs committee  I thank you for the question as well. The Canadian Armed Forces have made the transition interview mandatory for medically released regular force and reserve force members as well as for regular force members who are voluntarily releasing. On an annual basis, we are doing upwards of about 5,000 transition interviews.

Veterans Affairs committee  Under the enhanced transition services implemented in September 2015—and this is with the medically releasing regular force and reserve force members—for those who have a degree of complexity as determined by the CAF, in terms of the connection with the Veterans Affairs case manager, the engagement with Veterans Affairs starts at a minimum of six months before release.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the comments are quite good and encompassing. If you have another question, I would certainly—

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much. During the transition period, at the transition interview, the VAC agent counsels releasing members on our benefits and programs. That is one option for us to inform the member of what financial benefits are available from VAC. That is promoted and encouraged.

Veterans Affairs committee  I will. The pilot sites are in four of the 32 military family resource centres.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sorry. I may have misspoken. We have seven pilot sites out of a total of 32 MFRCs across Canada. At those seven pilot sites, we have provided the funding for the MFRC organizations to hire what we call “veteran family coordinators”. They, obviously, provide the services to medically released veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  For the process that we've put in place for that follow-up after release, we usually have the releasing contact information. If the member is moving to a different part of the country from the base from which he or she is releasing, we try to obtain that information during the transition interview.

Veterans Affairs committee  We make our best effort to reach them, but if we can't do it with the contact information that we have, then....

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have that figure with me today. As I mentioned earlier, we started this process in October. We had roughly 380 or so veterans in that category who had released, and to date we've contacted 280. For some of them, we are still in the process of trying to contact them.

Veterans Affairs committee  Good morning. Thank you very much for the question. Transition interviews have been administered by Veterans Affairs Canada for a number of years now. It's in excess of two years, actually—I think they started back in the early 2000s—but we have invested more aggressively in the transition services and the administration of the transition interview over the last two years, in concert, of course, with our Canadian Armed Forces colleagues.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I think it would be fair to say that the transition interview enables us to direct the releasing member. In some cases, the releasing members will need case management services, in which case they are assigned to a case manager. In other situations, if the members are functioning well and have no risks in transition, then they are directed potentially to benefits and services but without necessarily the case management services.