Government Operations committee  Yes, sir.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the committee members for inviting me to speak to you today about hiring veterans for public service positions. I'm very humbled to appear before you today as National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces ombudsman. My name is Greg Lick. Prio

Government Operations committee  We recently presented to two external stakeholder groups together, and we are working on more opportunities to take the Craig and Greg show on the road. I was appointed as ombudsman on an interim basis in November 2018. For me, serving this important constituency for the past se

Government Operations committee  My support was based on what I saw as natural links between the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces. I recognize that the links between the training elements of the Canadian Armed Forces and organizations such as the Canadian Coast Guard, Canada Border Services Ag

Government Operations committee  From the two ombudsman's offices, in terms of how we might deal with a particular complaint that comes to either of us, the typical jurisdictional line is, if it's caused by an issue to do with National Defence, our office would deal with it, and if it's caused by the Veterans Af

Government Operations committee  I'll touch a bit on what Mr. Dalton said as one of the recommendations, because I think that's very important. The delays are caused by the time it takes to adjudicate. If it's a medically releasing member, it's in the realm of Veterans Affairs. That takes time. One of the proces

Government Operations committee  I haven't looked into it that deeply as to whether it's a contracting or procurement option. There certainly have been some initiatives within the federal government to try to create that system for us. The one that's available now, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, simply

Government Operations committee  For last part of your question, I can't say. I don't believe it is. Mr. Dalton and I have said in our remarks that, more than anything, it is a lack of awareness of what military members do in their day-to-day jobs and the types of skills that they obtain throughout their career

Government Operations committee  It would definitely be one of the tools that would help, not only to educate hiring managers about what's available in the military but also to help military members understand the huge amount of opportunity that their skills could translate into in the civilian world.

Government Operations committee  I will comment on my experience. I can't comment on the whole public service and what every public service manager is doing. In my—

Government Operations committee  I will answer your question. In my experience, it is not about hiring managers' deciding that, because they are military members, they don't want to hire them. That is not my experience. My experience is that there is truly a lack of awareness, particularly among those who have

Government Operations committee  Yes. In years past, groups like Canada Company had awards, annual awards to promote and market those companies that were doing superb jobs at hiring veterans, promoting the hiring of veterans, all of that. That is another tool in the tool box that can get at making not only the p

Government Operations committee  I've already mentioned one of the creative solutions in terms of a skills translator that would provide information for both hiring managers, veterans or military members. The other one we talked about was the idea that, as soon as people are given the decision that they will be

Government Operations committee  In terms of service attribution, as I said, that has been given to Veterans Affairs to adjudicate, so that is the decision of the government. In fact, what I also referenced was how we are making that process easier. The armed forces and Veterans Affairs are working much more clo

Government Operations committee  One part of the process where we hope to see improvement—and we both recommended this to the department—is that all the benefits, all the adjudication that's necessary, should be done before the veterans release so that ultimately those delays that we're seeing now should be redu