Veterans Affairs committee  I suspect there may be some value there.

Veterans Affairs committee  My overall budget is $3.5 million. I get $1.25 million from the department for military family services.

Veterans Affairs committee  I was not educated about anything available to me when I was released from the Canadian Forces, and that's what's still happening today. We have a number of military members who have been injured who are working directly with us, and they provide my 24-hour, 7-day-a-week family information referral services.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, we invite VA to come in and provide that.

Veterans Affairs committee  But we only do it around deployment times, when we have a unit or members deploying, or a unit or a number of members from a unit have just come back. So it's strictly around the time of deployment and about educating them, especially reservists and their families, about what's available to them through all the different avenues.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think there's a gap. I think there needs to be more work on educating everybody.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's tremendous. We've had great response.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know that I can speak to that one, but it's a good question.

Veterans Affairs committee  No, I can't.... I'm really thinking about some of the duplication of services I've seen within the Canadian Forces. I'm still very unclear. I heard that in Halifax, VA was hiring a family peer support person for occupational stress injury. National Defence has a family peer support person for OSI.

Veterans Affairs committee  But Canadian Forces families shouldn't be in the whole pot with the general public. They've already made huge sacrifices.

Veterans Affairs committee  I said Canadian Forces families shouldn't be the same as the general public. The general public isn't making sacrifices on behalf of this nation.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely, but when it comes to medical...the comment was made that day care is a provincial issue. Well, it's the Government of Canada and the Canadian Forces saying you're moving to Lower Pumphandle, Saskatchewan, and too bad, so sad, there's no day care. So that military member, or whoever, is going to get out, and you've just lost a whole bunch of money.

Veterans Affairs committee  I certainly do have an opinion. The navy and the air force are incredibly good at engaging the families, educating, and making sure the families get all the information. The army hasn't come quite as far, and they still believe they need to control all the information a family receives.

Veterans Affairs committee  When I said total lack of services, I meant total lack of education on the services that are available. There is a huge array of programs and services available through VAC, through the Canadian Forces—all through the Government of Canada—for our families. It's just the lack of education.