Government Operations committee  I think that comes down to the point Mr. Semianiw made earlier that the structures need to be in place at DND so there is a type of support for the individuals so that they are being looked after. It would be a mentorship-type program. I want to expand on this a bit. The greate

Government Operations committee  Certainly I would very much support the notion of targets, because what gets measured gets done, and what gets measured and gets done drives behaviour. Hopefully, if we drive behaviour long enough, ultimately we will change the culture of the place.

Government Operations committee  Certainly based on my experience, for those who have acquired a physical or mental health impairment, the support is not there. I want to give you a bit of an illustration of that. When I look at workers' compensation systems around the world that deal with the same type of iss

Government Operations committee  Well, it was between 2004 and 2010 that I was part of the committee. The recommendations at that time were exactly the same as I think I'm presenting today, that individuals should not be allowed to depart from DND without a very clear game plan going forward, one that has return

Government Operations committee  Sure, I'd be happy to. In my view, there needs to be probably a significant change, I would argue, in the roles between DND and Veterans Affairs in this regard. That is what I referred to earlier with respect to the whole question of triaging. I want to give you an example, per

Government Operations committee  The 70% refers to individuals with disabilities and the real challenge in this regard is that is very consistent. If you look at the employment equity numbers for individuals with disabilities, the outflow rate right now in the federal civil service—and we're talking about an org

Government Operations committee  There are a good number of organizations. A good example of that is Canada Post. Some seven or eight years ago, they established a national program where they're saying no individual who acquires an impairment is going to lose their job. The Irving Group in the Maritimes is a p

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Please let me start by offering my appreciation for the opportunity today to offer a few thoughts on the employment potential that the federal civil service presents for veterans. In this context, I would l

Veterans Affairs committee  I would actually argue that having individuals go back to work is a huge factor in mitigating the negative consequences. I know from personal experience, if you are sitting at home and you are not fully and gainfully employed, that is when you run into serious challenges, because

Veterans Affairs committee  The one part I would do is make sure I got to them early, before they have the compounding of the psychosocial issues. I would make sure I would try to intervene before six months.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the only part that I would add is that I think you're absolutely right, James. The issue is for all of those more recent veterans, because ultimately you want to stay a participating member in society. You want to carry on. You want to be able to earn a decent living and

Veterans Affairs committee  At the moment there are about 3,000 individuals with the designation in 16 different countries. As part of the work we are doing on the agreement we signed with the International Social Security Association, the standards we developed will essentially become part of the United Na

Veterans Affairs committee  That question is key. What happens is that individuals who acquire a disability while in the service tend to stay within the Department of National Defence for an extended time. In many ways, that's similar to what the private sector would call “light duty”, as opposed to taking

Veterans Affairs committee  What I was referring to is a real easy rehabilitation system model that individual WCBs have in place. Coming out of Afghanistan, you have some 3,200 individuals with significant disabilities. Our WCB in B.C. deals with around 3,500 permanent disabilities every year. You have a t

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity, Mr. Chairman. Honourable members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my sincerest appreciation for the opportunity to be here before you and to offer some thoughts on expected rehabilitation outcomes and servic