Veterans Affairs committee  Bjarne.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I must apologize for my scruffy appearance. Next month, on April 16, with True Patriot Love, I'm trekking up to the North Pole—

Veterans Affairs committee  —so I'm just trying to get myself all scruffy and get as much protection as I can for when I'm up there. It might be a little bit lengthy, but bear with me.

Veterans Affairs committee  Good afternoon, everyone. I just want to thank all of you in attendance for inviting me here to share my story as well as some of my insights on the matters at hand with all of you. My name is Sergeant Bjarne Nielsen. I'm 34 years old. I've been in the military for just over 17

Veterans Affairs committee  Everyone's case happens to be different, unfortunately. For continuity of care, I think it's a good interaction for the member who's injured to maintain communiqué with his case representative or his caseworker, making sure that this contact is also in communiqué with the unit

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't like the lump sum payout. Not everyone is financially savvy. It's great that the opportunity for someone to go and seek some professional help with regard to financing is available. Unfortunately, one of my peers Jody Mitic—I'm sure everyone knows about him. He's been o

Veterans Affairs committee  With regard to service with DND, again it's a case-by-case basis, and you want to help those who are helping you. It doesn't do any good to go in banging your fists or yelling at someone because you're having a bad day, because you can't wear your prosthetic or whatever. You know

Veterans Affairs committee  For the first nine months post-injury, I had an assisting officer. It bounced between a couple of different guys because initially we got a member who was from the reserve world who came and catered to Maxine at the time. He was way outside of the circle of knowledge in terms of

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm just getting into that phase right now. I'm currently in a phase called RTW, return to work. I was employed with Soldier On. I was the coordinator for eastern Ontario but I retired from that because I'm committed to the TPL adventure I'm about to go on. Then also I want to co

Veterans Affairs committee  With regard to Helmets to Hardhats, I'm not too familiar with it but I do understand the program and the idea behind it. I don't think it's just how much money you can throw at it. I think it's providing the opportunity and the knowledge to our serving members that there is a lif

Veterans Affairs committee  No. I'm still waiting for a report back from DMCA, or D Med Pol, I think it is. They are the ones who tell you, yes, here is your final date, and you can attest it or ask for more time. So they're usually the ones who tell you when your release date is. I'm still two to two and

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  To some extent I do, absolutely, because every trade is different. No offence to our logistics trade or anything like that, but they are not of the same mentality as our infanteers, nor is our air force in the same capacity as our artillery guys. Depending on the job or the trad

Veterans Affairs committee  Is this through SISIP?

Veterans Affairs committee  Actually, yes; I think SISIP helps me out with my education two years prior to release, and then Veterans Affairs carries on and picks up whatever is remaining, if there are any more years of schooling expected afterwards.