Veterans Affairs committee  The biggest concern is that there are too many layers, too many processes and procedures being put in place. If you put one in place today, something will change tomorrow, and you have to try to re-learn the process and keep moving forward. The biggest thing we keep hearing fro

Veterans Affairs committee  I am going to refer to my communications person, Mike, who collected all of the data. He has more background in this. Mike?

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, and good afternoon. The Union of Veterans' Affairs Employees is a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. We represent over 2,800 employees within Veterans Affairs, including most of the front-line staff who deal with veterans and their families every day.

Veterans Affairs committee  It wasn't just in Charlottetown. There was a huge impact across Canada.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  A lot of times it could be as simple as they're having mental health issues and could be late for work. We had somebody recently who was rejected for being late by 12 minutes. It's the plausibility of the rejection on probation. They can get rid of you for any reason whatsoever.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can reach out to my regional vice-presidents for them to check with their teams, absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  They see the same things that veterans in the community face, the struggles and tribulations. We have a number of dual employees/veterans who have actually filed complaints as high as the ombudsman's office due to that.

Veterans Affairs committee  We are nowhere near the numbers that we had. I was looking at the FTE numbers on the department's human resources website. Just from the numbers from 2007 to 2017, we're still down about 250 FTEs from that point in 2007. However, the case management numbers have increased; the ap

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not sure if it would make.... I don't think the plan will potentially work. They're talking with all senior-level managers. They need to come and talk to the front-line staff on how to actually create a plan to make it work.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have the specific stats, but I do know that we have seen a number of our veterans, who have been hired, rejected on probation.

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

Veterans Affairs committee  In the reports that I get from the department, for instance, at the end of December 31, 2019, they had 13,022 case-managed veterans. They take the number of case managers and just divide it. That's how they get the average, but it's not the reality of what each case manager is ac

Veterans Affairs committee  No.