Veterans Affairs committee  To date, the transition assistance program we run inside the Canadian Forces has primarily been focused on providing assistance in the transition to civilian life for those who are ill and injured, whereas the Veterans Affairs career transition program really assists any and all

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, it's a great question, and it comes up often. We have recently completed a series of 25 town halls across the country specifically to get the word out to serving members about how to understand the new Veterans Charter. I sponsored it, but Veterans Affairs did the li

Veterans Affairs committee  In the last few years we have been invoking lessons learned from Afghanistan. First of all, as people come out of theatre, previously from Kandahar and now from Kabul, we take them to Cyprus for a five-day decompression period called third-location decompression. They used to g

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll ask Colonel Blais. Colonel Blais is the director of casualty support management, and from a service delivery perspective he is one of the links, if not the primary link, that I have with Veterans Affairs. He deals with issues such as this one on a daily basis. He is also the

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly. I can't and won't speak to the part of your question dealing with Veterans Affairs, but we have military family resource centres in every base and every wing across the country and in the joint personnel support unit, where a lot of these medically releasing personnel

Veterans Affairs committee  I spend $20 million a year supporting the military family support centres across the country. They are also free, in the governance construct under which they operate, to fundraise as they may see fit in order to address specific regional or local needs. I provide money for a nat

Veterans Affairs committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. It is indeed a pleasure to be here today to discuss the various Canadian Forces programs and policies that facilitate transition from a career in uniform to life after service. With me today are Brigadier-General Fred Bi

Public Accounts committee  That's a great question. This is based on some of the lessons learned that we experienced after the coming into force...which I think validates the decision to go forward on March 1, 2007. At the time it was introduced, there was an online calculator that people could use to ge

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that is still a possibility.

Public Accounts committee  There are two things, in my opinion. First, we must continue to produce a performance report to ensure that we are transparent.

Public Accounts committee  We must measure our performance and openly and transparently communicate that. Furthermore, I think that it is still a challenge to communicate efficiently and regularly with our reservists. In my opinion, those are the two things we should continue to focus on.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely.

Public Accounts committee  Since the plan was implemented in March 2007, we have continually evaluated this issue and have hired staff along the way. That is something we continually evaluated in order to determine, in light of the number of hours required to process each file, whether we should adjust the

Public Accounts committee  If I could elaborate on that, it has very much been a consultative piece with the Office of the Auditor General. We're fully cognizant of the amount of staff effort it takes from the OAG's office, so would it be a good investment of time and resources to do that, if we were fairl

Public Accounts committee  Correct. Some 92 people were in that section in October 2006, before the plan came into place. We have grown it incrementally and systemically over time to a total of 232 people.