Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. It's a really important point. Many of our veterans are either geographically or socially isolated, and we know that very often those are the at-risk ones. We've heard very powerfully today about the longer-term impacts on families. True Patriot Love funds digital support programs.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. The 2017 study was run by True Patriot Love, so it was an independent study. It made some recommendations on how the transition of serving members and, in particular, connections to private sector employment could be improved. I would say a number of those things have improved over the years.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to contribute to your mandate through this study on transition to civilian life. As Canada’s national foundation for the military community, much of True Patriot Love’s work contributes in a range of ways to support military and veteran transition.

National Defence committee  Yes. We're working with the Government of Ontario on a major pilot to strengthen hiring former service members into the health care sector and the private sector, mirroring the U.K.'s “step into health” program. To conclude, to ensure that military members and their families can remain in service for the optimal time and complete a positive and healthy transition to civilian life, we would hope the government both promotes the comprehensive provision of care to our military community and recognizes the value of community supports that might often provide essential services and offer choice to a service member or veteran from a more formal Canadian Armed Forces or government program, should they wish.

National Defence committee  Thank you to the committee for the opportunity to contribute to this important piece of work. True Patriot Love is Canada’s national foundation for the military and veteran community, and we work closely as a trusted partner with the Canadian Armed Forces, Veterans Affairs and the federal and provincial governments.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm delighted that you're looking forward to the games. We welcome everybody to be with us. We certainly do see it as an opportunity. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we've created seven legacy programs for the games, one of which is employment and transition. In addition to hiring veterans into the games organizing team, we're asking all of our sponsors and our corporate partners through the games to consider veteran hiring.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we are delighted with the partnership we have. It falls into two strands, firstly around mental health and supporting programs specifically looking at veterans' mental health and that of their families, but specifically for this discussion this evening, there is a second program, through the Ministry of Labour, Training, Immigration and Skills Development, that is looking at supporting veteran transition employment.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  We were involved. We acted quickly to establish the Afghan resettlement fund. We recognized that once those interpreters and their families and others who'd supported the Canadian mission arrived in Canada, it was very important that they were helped to resettle here. We focused our efforts on the arrival post touching down in Canada.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have translation, so forgive me.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a great question. Often, when I'm talking to businesses about this—and we've been working with a number of private sector partners on building veteran employed resource groups, for example—the first question I ask them is, “How many veterans do you have?” I'm always shocked by how few of them actually count.

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly, I am familiar. For the committee's background, I used to work in the United States on this subject. I was involved some time ago with that. The origin of that—it's a piece of information that the committee might like to consider, and I would be pleased to forward a link afterwards if helpful—came from a report, I think it was in 2009.

Veterans Affairs committee  I apologize, but I try to hide it.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would group my answer into two areas: one is preparing for the arrival and retention of veterans within the private sector. I think there's a lot that businesses, government and not-for-profit organizations that are hiring veterans can do to make that experience much easier. We often hear how difficult it is coming out of a military career that they may have been in for some time—you've either done your time or it has been taken away through injury—and how difficult that transition can be.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you to the chair and the committee for the opportunity to contribute to this important piece of work. True Patriot Love is Canada’s national foundation for the military and veteran community. We work closely as a trusted partner with Veterans Affairs, the Canadian Armed Forces and the federal and provincial governments, including our partnership in Ontario on veterans employment.