Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. We're here this morning as representatives of the Union of Veterans' Affairs Employees, which is a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. UVAE represents over 2,800 employees with Veterans Affairs C

Veterans Affairs committee  We realize that we've only given you a snapshot of what we've heard and what is happening across the country when it comes to how veterans' services are being provided, but we hope you will appreciate that from the perspective of the front-line workers, the case managers, this is

Veterans Affairs committee  I had a meeting with the Minister of Veterans Affairs on February 24 before I flew to Charlottetown for some additional meetings. I raised concerns about the wait times, the backlogs and the case management numbers. Unfortunately, I left there not really feeling positive that he'

Veterans Affairs committee  We do talk. When our union reps—there are five regional vice-presidents across the country, my national executive vice-president and I—meet with senior management, we're bringing all of the concerns directly to them. We have discussions about our concerns and what we feel could p

Veterans Affairs committee  There's some dialogue, but not to the degree that I feel is required to effect the change that's needed.

Veterans Affairs committee  The big portion of that is ensuring that we're talking directly to the staff who are doing the work on a daily basis. In my opinion, they're the ones who can effectively tell the department what needs to be changed and how it is. As I mentioned, we need those case management nu

Veterans Affairs committee  I would personally say that it's a minimum of six months when case managers are hired, because there's a lot of legislation, policies and procedures they have to learn. There are a lot of programs they have to learn the ins and outs of. The department just put in, I think it was

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely, a majority of the backlog is with the adjudicators who are trying to get veterans into the department and onto benefits. There is not enough staff in the adjudicating section. A lot of times staff in the department will do overtime and the employees who are already ov

Veterans Affairs committee  That's a good question. Plain and simple, they need more staff on the ground. Unfortunately, a lot of the adjudicators are based in Charlottetown. There is nothing wrong with Charlottetown, but the pool of employment is limiting there. I think that some of those adjudication posi

Veterans Affairs committee  Sorry, I just missed that last part.

Veterans Affairs committee  Based on our membership across the country, we haven't seen a large improvement in many sectors. The morale is still a huge issue, and the work-life balance is still a major concern, so no.

Veterans Affairs committee  Within the adjudication sections specifically, there's hearing loss, PTSD, musculoskeletal.... There's a range of files sitting there waiting that, in our opinion, could be moved much more quickly.

Veterans Affairs committee  There is still a backlog for the treatment aspect, absolutely, across the department, and I know that in Quebec—I forget the specific year—there were additional staff put in to try to deal specifically with the situation within the Quebec area.

Veterans Affairs committee  There's going through the Public Service Commission and getting it posted. Once you do that, you have to screen the applications and make sure they meet the criteria of the job. Then it's organizing the selection processes. Then you have to do the security clearances, fingerprint

Veterans Affairs committee  With regard to moving money out of the operations, Veterans Affairs Canada has a 6% operation budget. The 6% budget is less than what most charitable organizations have for an operational budget. When we look at the veterans' aspect, we're a department that's supposed to provide