Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Faith. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Again, I apologize for the technical difficulties this afternoon. My name is Robert Tomljenovic and I'm the Area Director for the southwestern Ontario area at Veterans Affairs Canada. I am responsible

Veterans Affairs committee  The veterans emergency fund became effective April 1, 2018, so as of that date we would have started to receive applications, and payments that were approved would have gone out. I don't have the specific details on when the first fund application was approved, but as of that dat

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, to my understanding that is what occurred. I can tell you, in my area offices, we started getting applications as of that date.

Veterans Affairs committee  Right. We would receive the application and then we would review it. Then the process would be, if it was approved, that we would pay the funds for whichever emergency it was being requested for.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's okay.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a community-based approach to assisting homelessness and certainly homeless veterans. We welcome our close partnerships with many of our key stakeholders, and VETS Canada has been one of them. I could tell you the Royal Canadian Legion has been immensely positive, certainly

Veterans Affairs committee  I wouldn't say they relieve the strain. I would say we work collaboratively. For example, a lot of our referrals will come through the Royal Canadian Legion. We count on them, because often when a veteran identifies, they prefer to identify, for whichever reason, to someone they'

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we do, certainly. For example, if we have a mutual client with VETS Canada, our case managers aren't available on a Saturday at two in the morning, but VETS Canada may know that veteran and then assist over the weekend. We certainly follow up the following week and just hav

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure. I'm just hoping that I understand the question. For us, in terms of red flags in the field—and certainly case managers will look for this—we look for things such as a veteran who is couch-surfing. If they have no real stable housing and they're having difficulties meeting

Veterans Affairs committee  Okay.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sure. That comment is dead-on. In my offices we've seen veterans who have been identified as being very hesitant to either come into the office or speak to—quote, unquote—a government official. In those instances, we don't rush. The first thing we need to do is build trust with

Veterans Affairs committee  I can speak to how we've been utilizing the fund here. As you know, the fund is there really for urgent and unforeseen situations. If we are approached by someone with a need, we will look at it and see what we can do. I did mention before, however, that there are instances whe

Veterans Affairs committee  To be honest, because my area is in southwestern Ontario, I just in all good faith couldn't comment about the west and that situation. I can tell you that from our standpoint, we don't want someone to get into a crisis situation, so it's very similar to looking for red flags—som

Veterans Affairs committee  Just so you know some figures with regard to the veterans emergency fund, as of November 15, there have been 416 approvals, and roughly $676,519 has been put out. From my experience, we have been quite efficient. We take it seriously when an emergency fund application comes thr

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say that some of the big things certainly are things that they witnessed overseas, dealing with, as you know, post-traumatic stress disorder. As a result, we have a lot of other issues that can come through from there, whether it's addictions and that. We're finding tha