Veterans Affairs committee  There are a variety of different models that are used. Some are the fully trained model, as per what National Service Dogs and ADI programs are doing. There are some programs that are doing the owner-train participatory model. However, you must be aware, and it's highlighted in

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, MP Blaney. In short, it would make headaches and problems go away. For the people who are involved with providing service dogs and dealing with people with PTSD, we suffer from.... First off, we don't trust anybody. A disproportionate number of us have anger issues th

Veterans Affairs committee  In September 2016, I addressed an email to Veterans Affairs Canada, which I will forward to the clerk, and it was called “The Service Dog Tsunami”. I outlined the implications of not having national standards and the size of the supply and demand problem. Jim Barrett, professor e

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely not.

Veterans Affairs committee  There are reasons that we partnered with certain schools in the United States, and they've done a yeoman's job in providing dogs. My girl comes from a program in Kansas. This problem is huge. Unfortunately, certain industry players have been too busy trying to carve out their n

Veterans Affairs committee  If we had national service dog standards, I would have the same response no matter which airline I phoned. Every single airline I phone has a different response to what is required for me to fly with my service dog. Even though there are things like accessibility laws and disabil

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I will answer in English, as what I have to say is very important. First off, it is our country. It is every single one of us who is on this call today, with the exception of Ms. O'Brien, and I'm sure she's right there with us in spirit. We need to do better for ou

Veterans Affairs committee  We could actually take what the Government of Canada is currently doing through the veteran and family well-being fund, which is supporting Wounded Warriors Canada's service dog program, although it's a very small undertaking. Because Wounded Warriors Canada uses the prescriber g

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Brassard. I'm thankful this committee is meeting virtually. It means that Thai and I do not have to run the gauntlet of getting from here to Ottawa. We would have had to face no less than six major regulatory hurdles from planes, trains, automobiles, airlines, hot

Veterans Affairs committee  The national standards and the prescriber guidelines virtually go hand in hand. I helped develop those with Kristine Aanderson, a registered psychologist from Alberta, because we were confronted with getting prescription letters that were completely useless, such as “So and so ne

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Five minutes is a bit of a surprise, considering that the notes I have are five to 10 minutes; however, we shall prevail. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to assist you in establishing the requirements for a federal service dog standard.

Finance committee  Well, actually the easiest move afoot is for Veterans Affairs Canada to contract with the B.C. government to use their standard, which will also be the Nova Scotia standard, to bring it across the country, translate it into French as appropriate and put in the inter-agency recipr

Finance committee  Yes, because currently the medical expense tax credit is available to all the other service dogs that are there. It's embedded in the ITA. You can see it. The sole exception is those dogs that we're using for mental health injuries. I'm avoiding using that “p” word on purpose bec

Finance committee  Well, we need a practical standard. The other side of this is that—and we have to be very careful here—we do not run the risk of just opening the floodgates and letting people run willy-nilly and hither and yon. For those of you who are familiar, last Wednesday in Quebec an IC

Finance committee  The actual capital cost of the dog, depending on the organization from which you're acquiring a dog, is somewhere between $15,000 and $30,000. However, to put the ongoing operating and maintenance budget into purely budgetary terms, when you take a $3,000 sum and multiply it by t