Veterans Affairs committee  If the lump sum payment exceeds a certain amount, as I mentioned in my earlier remarks—the workers' compensation boards tend to use a 5% limit on commutation—it should be converted to a regular pension payment. There's overwhelming evidence that while lump sum payments may be of

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, I think that would be an excellent idea. It's not something we haven't seen. A number of jurisdictions have moved in that direction. Certainly with the government having recently ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, article 27 of

Veterans Affairs committee  No, I don't. It would be tremendously complicated. As well, this is defined constitutionally as a provincial responsibility.

Veterans Affairs committee  One of the things I would do as a first step is also what a number of large organizations--for example, Ford Motor Company--have done, which is to take an inventory of current existing jobs. In other words, what are the bona fide occupational requirements for the jobs we're looki

Veterans Affairs committee  I honestly can't answer your question about what happens within DND. I do know that the biggest challenge currently is the interface between the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs, that individuals stay too long within DND even though they are not being permanent

Veterans Affairs committee  That's right.

Veterans Affairs committee  You see this with a number of universities that are in the process of developing different types of prior learning assessments to establish some level of equivalency in terms of what that means. I look at Ryerson and their disabilities studies program. They have created a proce

Veterans Affairs committee  I would look at improving the holistic outcomes in terms of rehabilitation. I would suggest you consider, at the very least on a pilot basis, entering into a relationship with one of the workers' compensation boards. The level of service, the caseload that individual case manager

Veterans Affairs committee  That's an interesting comment. I think in part you've hit the nub of it, which is really the whole notion of the military family and that individuals want to stay within that military family. At the same time, I know enough veterans and enough processes, and there's the example I

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. There was a point in terms of the relationship that DND has whereby they created partnerships with all of the regional acute care rehabilitation facilities in order for veterans to be closer to their families and closer to their home bases, rather than having everything cent

Veterans Affairs committee  I appreciate your comment because it was a flashback to my own experience in many ways. I had initially graduated in civil and forest engineering and was working out in the bush. But then I ended up actually retraining as an accountant. Nothing against accountants, but I hated ev

Veterans Affairs committee  I'd be happy to do that. In terms of the communication of services and what's out there, I think that's a straightforward internal function of Veterans Affairs and what happens there. But I do want to point to a very specific example, because the question of rural services is a

Veterans Affairs committee  It could be those kinds of things. That's exactly right. Even major insurance companies such as the insurance company of British Columbia, for example, have moved towards structured settlements, and those are the ones we are seeing. Some other jurisdictions do have lump sum pa

Veterans Affairs committee  In terms of the lump sum, workers' compensation boards tend not to do that. I'll obviously speak from the British Columbia experience, where the agency is very large, but they all have roughly the same structure across the country. We only commute up to 5%. That means an individu

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, honourable members of the committee, ladies, and gentlemen. First, I'd like to express my sincerest appreciation for the opportunity to be here before you and to offer some thoughts on expected rehabilitation outcomes for disabled veterans. My comments t