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Mark Potter
View Mark Potter Profile
Mark Potter
2013-06-18 9:49
We'll be making one 10-minute opening statement.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Randall Garrison): Please go ahead.
Mr. Mark Potter: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to everyone. It's a great pleasure to appear before this committee again and to speak with you about the economics of policing. As mentioned, I am joined this morning by my colleague, Rachel Huggins.
We've been following your work very closely and are pleased at the engagement of parliamentarians on this important issue and the wide range of impressive witnesses you have heard from during the course of your deliberations. We look forward to your report and believe that it will make a significant contribution to the work under way on the economics of policing and, most importantly, towards the future of policing in Canada.
Since we last met, there have been a number of developments. I'd like to take this opportunity to update you on those developments, as well as talk about the way forward.
First, however, I'd like to provide some brief background. The Minister of Public Safety has been providing strong leadership on the economics of policing. He has been engaged with all of his federal, provincial, and territorial colleagues through recent meetings of FPT ministers of justice and public safety to collectively advance this issue.
The work under way on the economics of policing is based on the following three commitments agreed to by all FPT ministers: first, to convene a summit on the economics of policing; second, to promote information sharing on policies and practices that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of policing; and third, to develop a shared forward agenda or strategy for policing in Canada.
The development of a shared forward agenda is a unique opportunity for governments to continue to demonstrate collective leadership. Such leadership can help contribute to the evolution of policing in Canada at a time of fiscal constraints and heightened public expectations.
As you know, the summit took place in January 2013. The summit was hosted by the Minister of Public Safety on behalf of all FPT justice and public safety ministers. The summit set out to meet three objectives: first, increase awareness of the economics of policing; second, provide practical information on how to improve efficiency and effectiveness; and third, get ahead of the issue so that we can take well-considered actions and avoid the drastic policing cuts being faced in some jurisdictions.
The summit was attended by over 250 participants from across Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and several other countries. Both formal and informal feedback on the summit was very positive. It achieved the objectives of awareness, practical information, and getting ahead of the issue. It also conveyed strong collective government leadership. A report on the summit is available on the Public Safety Canada website.
In fact, the summit and other developments, including the work of this committee, appear to have accelerated interest both in the issue of the economics of policing and, most fundamentally, the pace of police reform. The development of a shared forward agenda is intended to continue that momentum of change.
The closing session of the summit laid out a framework for advancing the issue of the economics of policing that is oriented around the three pillars of transformation. These are: one, efficiencies within police services; two, new models of community safety; and three, efficiencies within the justice system.
These pillars are underpinned by evaluation and validation of best practices, strengthened research, and of course engagement. The goal of the strategy is increasingly efficient and effective policing.
For the strategy to be successful, it must respect jurisdictional responsibilities for policing and it must be inclusive of the entire policing community and other key stakeholders. The goal, put simply, is to identify those areas where it makes sense to cooperate collectively. Engagement and consultation on the shared forward agenda are intended to flesh out this framework with proposed short- and medium-term actions.
The consultation plan is rolling out over spring and summer 2013. This process is being driven by all governments, notably through deputy minister and assistant deputy minister level policing and public safety committees. A core group composed of Public Safety Canada and the three champion provinces—Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia—will be taking the lead in identifying and developing specific actions for consideration by ministers.
In order to ensure that we get a broad base of input toward the shared forward agenda, we have put together a steering committee comprising this core group of federal and provincial government officials, along with key representatives of the policing community. The heads of the three national policing associations, representing front-line officers, chiefs, and boards, are on this steering committee, as well as an academic expert in policing, Professor Curt Griffiths of Simon Fraser University.
In addition to the development of the shared forward agenda, as directed by ministers, an index of police initiatives is being finalized as a tool to facilitate information sharing and learning from one another. The index is truly a collaborative effort by governments and police services across the country. We believe it is the first of its kind in Canada. The index brings together over 150 innovative initiatives, activities, and best practices in one database and will make them broadly accessible through a user-friendly search engine and on-line interface. I think many Canadians will be surprised at the many innovative policing reforms that are already under way in Canada and from which we can all learn. A number of the witnesses before this committee have referred to such innovative practices, such as the use of integrated teams to assist in responding to calls that involve individuals with mental health challenges, among many others.
In addition to such information sharing, policing transformation and innovation must be founded upon a solid base of evidence and research if it is to be successful. However, as noted earlier this morning, currently in Canada there is a limited policing-related research capacity, no central repository of accessible research information, and no agreement within the policing community on research priorities. A key aspect of the shared forward agenda will be to address such shortcomings.
In order to begin that process, Public Safety Canada has commissioned certain baseline research projects. Projects under way are reviewing policing research in Canada, use of performance measures, international comparisons of policing strategies, and the costs of police training in Canada.
Moreover, there is a major long-term research project under way on the future of Canadian policing. This project is being led by the Council of Canadian Academies and is assessing how policing is organized and delivered in Canada. The project is being undertaken by a number of eminent Canadian and international researchers. This independent study is expected to be released in late 2014 or early 2015.
In addition to strengthening research, another early focus of the work currently under way is on improving police training. A lot of money, as you know, is spent on police training, and the focus tends to be on costly and time-consuming traditional in-class approaches. Such approaches, as you have heard, are not always well-suited to the technology-based learning styles familiar to most new police recruits. Therefore, another short-term action will be to convene a two-day training summit with the Canadian Police Knowledge Network in September 2013. The workshop will bring together a wide range of participants to explore issues and approaches and help set priorities related to police training going forward.
Building on the index of innovative policing initiatives, Public Safety Canada will continue to advance information sharing through its economics of policing website. The website will act as a key portal to broadly disseminate policing information and research and to provide updates on activities related to the economics of policing.
To recap, in terms of next steps, we will soon finalize the index. There will be a training summit in P.E.I. in September, and based on the ongoing consultations, we will present the shared forward agenda to ministers in fall 2013 for their consideration.
The outcome of this committee's deliberations will, I understand, also be released this fall. Such timing would allow all governments to benefit from and draw upon your findings as we collectively shape the way forward.
That concludes the presentation. Your questions and comments would be most welcome.
Thank you very much.
View Bryan Hayes Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you.
You mentioned that one year after a veteran retires, they're contacted either by email or by phone simply to see how they're doing. I want to speak a little bit in terms of what services you might have available online for veterans, online programs and websites. What we have in Canada is fairly extensive, but I don't know where the U.K. is in terms of online services and whether veterans can go online and see everything that's available to them—all the associated costs and all the associated processes.
Dave Rutter
View Dave Rutter Profile
Dave Rutter
2013-06-06 9:43
Certainly, that's where we're heading with the Royal British Legion, as part of the service that I described. At the moment, we're in a bit of a hybrid situation in which they're being informed, and in effect, emailed a letter that will signpost them to some of those key agencies: SPVA, Royal British Legion, statutory services, and others. The objective going forward...the Royal British Legion are redesigning their services so they will have an online one-stop shop for veteran services, where they can advise or refer to other services as appropriate. That would go down to the level of a Royal British Legion welfare officer visiting that individual in their home, if that's what's needed.
We also have the online mental health service, which is the big Whitehall service I referred to earlier on. We have commissioned that. We fund that. It allows veterans, their families, and those who are serving, to access that site where they can talk with others from that community, receive online one-to-one mental health counselling, etc. That's the other arm of that service we've been developing.
Margaret Gillis
View Margaret Gillis Profile
Margaret Gillis
2013-05-28 11:01
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members. I'm really pleased to be here today to speak to you regarding the health of older workers.
As we all know, older Canadians make a vital contribution to society. We are committed to supporting their health, well-being, and quality of life so they can stay active and involved in their communities.
At the Public Health Agency of Canada, our role is to promote the health of Canadians and prevent and control diseases through leadership, partnership, innovation, and action in public health. While our mandate is not specific to the workforce, we promote the health of all Canadians so they can participate fully in their communities, which includes, of course, the workplace.
Helping Canadians to make health choices is a shared responsibility. We work together with multiple levels of government, with stakeholders, and with researchers in order to encourage a sustained approach to health promotion that's based on the very best evidence available.
An example of this collaboration is seen in the commitment to helping Canadians lead healthier lives, as illustrated through the declaration on prevention and promotion. This declaration was endorsed by federal, provincial and territorial governments in 2010 and advances a multi-sectoral approach to the promotion of health and the prevention of disease, disability, and injury. The premise of this declaration is that health promotion is everyone's business.
While Canadians today enjoy a healthier life and are able to live longer, many live longer with serious health issues. Recent statistics tell us that 90% of Canadians aged 65 and over live with at least one chronic disease or condition, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory conditions, diabetes, dementia, arthritis, and obesity.
The good news is that many of the health challenges facing older Canadian are preventable. That's why the Public Health Agency focuses on health promotion and disease prevention through the life course.
Our goal is to increase the years Canadians spend in good health. The agency does this through our programs that promote healthy living, such as, for example, helping Canadians choose healthier foods and being more physically active. Our efforts to support healthy weights in childhood and to promote positive mental health have lifelong effects in preventing serious chronic diseases.
By promoting healthier living across the life course, we're setting the stage for maintaining good mental and physical health, reducing the likelihood of disease as we age, and promoting participation in the workforce. For example, the agency promotes multi-generational well-being, including supporting parents, grandparents, and caregivers through community-based programs for children and their families.
These programs provide funding to help communities to respond to the health and development needs of pregnant women, young children, and their families facing conditions of risk. They cover such issues as nutrition, infant care, immunization, parenting, and early childhood development. They also include positive mental health and injury prevention.
We have developed partnerships with pharmacies, provincial governments, and local public health units to disseminate a diabetes risk questionnaire called CanRisk, which helps Canadians identify the risk of having diabetes. They can then take appropriate measures to avert or delay the onset of this disease.
Successful interventions in one community can often benefit others. The agency gathers and shares these interventions through the Canadian best practices portal. This web-based portal provides a listing of trusted and credible resources designed to promote health and prevent chronic disease and injury. Ten of the best-practice interventions on the portal provide support for healthy workplaces that can also benefit older adults. For example, there's a program for working adults to improve their dietary habits, and there's a self-help intervention to promote active commuting among employees.
In addition to these initiatives, the agency supports immunization as an effective means to protect Canadians from infectious disease, through outreach initiatives such as the national campaign in the fall to promote influenza vaccination for Canadians, including people over the age of 65, since they are a particularly high-risk group.
We also promote the health of Canadian seniors through the age-friendly communities initiative. The agency works with partners on this initiative, including the World Health Organization, all three levels of government in Canada, seniors' organizations, community groups, and planners.
The age-friendly communities initiative is about engaging older adults and community leaders in the creation of supportive built and social environments. Its focus is on making communities more age-friendly so that more Canadians can age in good health. In turn, good health enables people to continue working.
An age-friendly community provides options for older people to continue to contribute to their communities, through paid employment or voluntary work if they so choose. To promote mental health for older people, we engage with partner organizations such as the Canadian Coalition for Seniors' Mental Health and the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly to share tools and resources for families and practitioners. These resources help those caring for seniors to recognize risks and warning signs related to depression, delirium, and mental health problems, and offer guidance on how to best manage these mental health issues.
Through budget 2007, the federal government provided $130 million over 10 years to establish and support the Mental Health Commission of Canada to act as a focal point for mental health issues. In 2012, the Mental Health Commission launched “Changing Directions, Changing Lives: The Mental Health Strategy for Canada”. This strategy serves as a non-prescriptive blueprint to guide actions to improve the mental health of Canadians.
The agency is also working to improve Canadian data on the mental health of older Canadians. Specifically, to fill in gaps and knowledge about rates of neurological conditions in Canada, such as Alzheimer's disease, and their effects on individuals, families, and caregivers, we are working with Canada's major neurological charities on a four-year population study of Canadians affected by neurological conditions. The results of this study will be available next year in 2014 and will help inform the development of programs and services for Canadians living with neurological conditions, many of whom are older Canadians.
Working with partners to promote healthy aging and to prevent and delay the onset of chronic disease, we will continue to take steps towards improving the health and well-being of Canadian seniors.
Thank you.
View Sylvain Chicoine Profile
NDP (QC)
Thank you.
Could you also talk to us about your new web portal? It looks very interesting. It is very personal and interactive. Veterans can do things like make appointments and renew prescriptions. Could you tell us how the new portal is helping to improve the veterans' health and status?
Robert Reynolds
View Robert Reynolds Profile
Robert Reynolds
2013-05-09 9:23
The eBenefits portal is a joint portal with the Department of Defense and VA. The two largest federal agencies have joined together to create this portal. We're the consumers; they're the suppliers of all our veterans.
DOD have made it mandatory that all service members must get an account upon entering. That gives us the ability to interact with them at the earliest possible point and throughout their careers.
E-benefits right now has 2.6 million registered users, with about 50 self-service features. It's like a big house. There are rooms off that house. A room might be our medical centre, so that's where I order my hearing aid batteries or my prescriptions. That's where I get my certificate of eligibility for my home loan. That's where I file my claim for disability compensation. That's where I would transfer my entitlement for my education benefit—chapter 33, the post-9/11 GI bill.
Again, it adds all these, and it keeps building with every release. We do a release every quarter. It's very agile. It moves very quickly.
Now we're starting to work with other federal agencies, such as the IRS and SSA, again empowering and providing the information to veterans that they might be entitled to.
Probably the nicest feature is that since we have all this data about you, we pre-populate all your forms. We make determinations automatically with a rules base. If you're a female veteran, when you log in, your view will be different from my view as a male veteran, because we know you're a female veteran. We call that persona base.
We have everyone from a World War II air veteran who has an account to somebody who walked in the door today.
Thomas Murphy
View Thomas Murphy Profile
Thomas Murphy
2013-05-09 9:52
That's everyday business for us. The idea is, how do I reduce the administrative burden I'm putting on individuals, number one. Number two, how do I take off the obstacles to having to fill out this form, and then fill out that form, and then fill out another form? It's partly selfish and partly an impact on the veteran. Partly selfish because each time I do that it takes me longer. I'm measured on my days to complete a claim from beginning to end, so I want to reduce all that and get it down to collecting it up front.
The other part of it is the VONAPP Direct Connect. The VDC online application we're talking about is the big focus for us. It allows me to do a TurboTax-style interview to collect information from a veteran in the form of data and process that significantly faster. This won't happen until this summer, but the idea is that a veteran comes in through the eBenefits portal and goes into the VONAPP Direct Connect to complete an online application, and they answer a series of questions. Until they answer all those questions all the way to the end, the veteran doesn't even know what information and forms in great detail I've done. I pre-populate in the right forms for them and feed that into my system. I'm trying to get the veteran completely away from the paper environment. As I said earlier, we'll always maintain the ability to do it through paper, but we're trying to capture that in an automated environment.
The other thing we put in place is the ability of the veteran to hit the save button at any time, lock in their effective date for payment, and then have up to one year to come back in and put that additional information in and submit that form to us.
So every single day I get up, every day that I'm at work, I'm trying to figure out a way to make the process faster and the easier for me and for the veteran.
Robert Reynolds
View Robert Reynolds Profile
Robert Reynolds
2013-05-09 9:54
Perhaps I could just add a quick example, and I agree, we do it every day.
When I was with our home loan section 10 years ago, a veteran would have had to fill a form out, which would have gotten sent into VA, and then one of our claims people would have typed what we call a certificate of eligibility for the home loan benefit and mailed that back to the veteran. Today, a veteran can go on eBenefits and literally click a button without entering any data and generate that certificate of eligibility. So with a click now they can get their certificate of eligibility.
Charlotte Bastien
View Charlotte Bastien Profile
Charlotte Bastien
2013-05-07 8:50
Good morning and thank you very much.
I will make my presentation, after which Robert and I will be pleased to answer your questions.
Today's presentation will be about benefits and services that Veterans Affairs Canada provides to our veterans.
Who do we serve? We serve over 200,000 clients ranging in age from 19 to 90. These clients include war-service veterans, Canadian armed forces personnel and veterans, RCMP veterans and members, as well as survivors.
There are over 700,000 veterans in Canada, of whom at least 200,000 contact the department to ask for assistance.
You will see that the department's program expenses for veterans are
of over $3.568 billion, of which 90% flows directly to veterans.
On the next slide you will see the demographic profile, of participants which has changed over the last few years. Unfortunately, we saw the decline and attrition of Second World War veterans and Korean War veterans, as well as an increase in the number of veterans from the modern era.
The average age at release from the Canadian Forces is approximately 35 years old. The average age of Canadian Forces veterans is 58 years old.
As to the benefits and services we offer, there are disability pensions and related allowances to recognize pain and suffering resulting from service-related injuries. We have program expenditures of $1.6 billion for disability pension and allowances flowing to nearly 115,000 veterans and survivors.
We also provide war veterans with an allowance, that is financial assistance for low-income veterans of the  Second World War and Korea. Expenditures for that program total $11 million, paid to just over 4,000 recipients. Those who receive the supplementary allowances may also be eligible for other special allowances, including allowances for health care, clothing and exceptional disability.
We offer treatment benefits for all veterans, traditional and modern day. We provide a range of treatment benefits that we refer to as the 14 programs of choice, which include support for aids for daily living, ambulance services, audio services, dental services, hospital services, medical services, medical supplies, nursing services, oxygen therapy, prescription drugs, prosthetics, orthotics, related health services, special equipment, and vision care.
The department also provides support for services such as health professionals, occupational stress injury clinics, and medicare premiums.
Veterans may qualify to receive financial support for one or more treatment benefits if they are receiving a disability benefit, participating in a rehabilitation program, receiving the VIP, the veterans independence program for long-term care, the war veterans allowance, or the Canadian Forces income support.
The expenditures on treatment benefits were $538 million last year, paid to over 97,000 veterans.
On health-related travel, travel expenses incurred by a veteran when travelling to receive health care services or benefits may be reimbursed by the department. Health-related travel costs include items such as transportation, parking, meals, lodging, out-of-province travel, and when required, an escort, meaning someone to accompany the veteran if he is travelling to receive treatment.
Recent changes to the program mean that veterans do not need to submit receipts with their travel claims unless we ask for them. A veteran must still obtain receipts or appointment verifications and retain the original receipts for one year in case they are requested. We have simplified the process for the reimbursement of health-related travel for veterans.
The veterans independence program, or VIP, has been referred to as the gold standard of home care programs. It is designed to assist veterans and survivors in maintaining their independence through the provision of home and community care, and includes services such as personal care, housekeeping, ground maintenance, ambulatory services, transportation services, home adaptation, and nursing home care.
In budget 2012, one of the specific measures announced included replacing the existing contribution agreement for the housekeeping and ground maintenance component of the VIP with an annual grant, which began in January 2013. Recipients of these services no longer need to obtain, track, and submit the receipts and wait to be reimbursed. This makes it faster and easier for them to get the support they need when they need it. The initiative is cutting red tape by reducing millions of transactions each year for more than 100,000 veterans, caregivers, and survivors who receive assistance for services such as mowing the lawn, removing snow, or cleaning the house.
With the new program, as I explained, instead of sending receipts in on a monthly or regular basis, veterans now receive up front twice a year two installments of the financial arrangement that they require for their groundskeeping and housekeeping.
With respect to the long-term care program, veterans are supported in three long-term care settings: in community beds in facilities that provide nursing home care to veterans and other provincial residents; in contract beds in facilities with beds designated through contractual arrangements for priority access for veterans; and in departmental beds such as Ste. Anne's hospital, which is the only federally owned facility. The eligibility differs and depends on the type of military service, income, and whether the need for long-term care is due to a service-related disability.
Most war veterans are eligible for care in a contract or community bed, or at Ste. Anne's hospital. Their care does not need to be related to a service-related disability. They may be eligible if they served overseas during the war, or if they are in receipt of a disability pension, or are low-income war veterans.
Canadian Forces veterans are eligible for support in a community bed if the need for long-term care is due to an illness or injury directly related to their military service. The department is financially supporting over 8,700 veterans in 1,750 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities across Canada.
In 2006, Veterans Affairs Canada introduced the New Veterans Charter, which provides financial security to veterans who are unsuitable for civil employment and provides programs to help injured veterans live a healthier, richer and more independent life following their military service. The new charter includes the following elements: the Disability Payments Program; the Rehabilitation Program; the Allowance for Temporary Earnings Loss Program, now prolonged and improved; career transition services; the Permanent Impairment Allowance and its supplements; the Income Support Allowance for Canadian Forces, and Supplementary Retirement Benefits.
As of December 2012, over 40,000 veterans and families have had access to various programs or elements of the New Veterans Charter. Disability payments make up the largest of programs resulting from the New Veterans Charter. The program aims at recognizing and compensating the economic effects of disability or death that are service-related, by providing lump sum payments. In 2011-2012, that program made up 82% of expenditures related to the new charter. That represented $360 million in program expenditures under the new charter, out of a total $440 million.
Improvements were made to the new charter in 2011, in order to correct unexpected gaps in the areas of financial and other assistance. These improvements guarantee that veterans that are registered in the rehabilitation program have a minimum income of $40,000 per year. These improvements also increase seriously injured veterans' annual minimum income. That amount has increased to $58,000 per year. The eligibility criteria for monthly supplementary allowances have been made more flexible, creating a new monthly supplement. Such improvements also allow for new payment methods for the disability payments received by veterans, which was previously called the lump sum. Those improved payments total over $2 billion per year during the lifetime of the program and ensure that vulnerable and seriously injured veterans receive the financial assistance and support they require, at the right time, for as long as necessary.
With respect to mental health services, Veterans Affairs has a wide range of services and benefits for veterans, Canadian armed forces personnel, RCMP members, and the families of those living with a mental health condition. We have the operational stress injury clinics, the Canadian armed forces operational and trauma stress support centres, the chronic pain management clinics, specialized community in-patient treatment, community mental health services providers, clinical care managers, the operational stress injuries social support program, and a 24-hour toll-free VAC assistance service. We also have a number of partnerships to enhance capacity to assist veterans.
I remind you that the Veterans Affairs Canada OSI clinic locations are Fredericton, New Brunswick; Loretteville, Quebec; and Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. We also have the residential treatment clinics for operational stress injuries in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec; Ottawa, Ontario; London, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Edmonton, Alberta; Calgary, Alberta; and Vancouver, British Columbia.
The veterans transition program works with the University of British Columbia to provide support for veterans during the transition.
I mentioned that we have a network of community mental health service providers. We have over 4,000 providers in the community. We also have the chronic pain management clinic that is available for veterans.
Our core business at the department is case management. We have a number of case managers throughout the country located in various offices to provide case management services for any veterans and their families who would require such services. They are there for veterans and their families who have complex needs, especially those with serious injuries or illnesses. As of December 2012, we had approximately 7,200 case-managed veterans across the country. The core case management functions, in case you are wondering, include engagement, assessment, analysis of the need, case planning, consultation, monitoring, and evaluation.
We also provide transition services. These services are offered to members who are about to be released from the Canadian Forces. We provide a transition interview to determine whether needs associated with the person's release could hinder their transition to civilian life. In the case of members about to be released and their families, we work in collaboration with Canadian armed forces personnel.
Between April 1 and December 31, 2012, Veterans Affairs Canada conducted 3,179 transition interviews. We have also created additional programs and partner with groups to facilitate a veteran's transition into civilian life. Some examples are the Helmets to Hardhats program,
which is Helmets to Hardhats,
the Hire a Veteran program, which was implemented in December 2012, and the Prince of Wales' Operation Entrepreneur.
This is the Prince's Charities organization, which provides support to veterans seeking self-employment, who wish to start up their own business. It's a potential source of funding. There is also coaching and training to set up their own business.
We also offer levels of appeal for a veteran who is not satisfied with a decision by the department regarding his disability. The next charts describe the various levels and a mechanism that's available for a veteran to appeal his or her decision.
Regarding points of service, Veterans Affairs Canada has approximately 1,800 people spread among more than 60 locations across the country, in addition to the head office in Charlottetown. We have a network of interdisciplinary client service teams at area offices across the country. We also have more than 100 staff who work on bases, what we call integrated personnel support centres, located on or near the 24 Canadian Forces bases and wings. Veterans and families can also reach us through the toll-free line in both English and French, through the My VAC Account, and also through our website. The users of My VAC Account can update their address, phone, e-mail, and direct-deposit information. They can fill out and submit a disability benefit application. They can track the status of the disability benefit application. They can also fill out and submit a request for reimbursement for health-related travel. They can track their documentation. They can also view their Veterans Affairs Canada benefit, and they can communicate securely with the department.
Looking forward now, we continue to modernize our service delivery in order to cut red tape when it comes to accessing our programs and services. Our focus is on improved, faster and more efficient service to our veterans and their families. We continue to reduce complexity of access to our programs and services by offering more one-stop services, as well as more online options to access information and services. We have also improved our wait times in terms of processing applications for benefits and services. We continue to establish and maintain strong partnerships with DND, the Canadian Forces and other stakeholders to provide and improve service delivery to veterans.
With respect to other points of service and where to get assistance, in addition to Veterans Affairs area office staff, there are other organizations and partners that are ready and willing to help veterans and their families to apply for VAC benefits at no cost.
The Bureau of Pensions Advocates will represent, free of charge, any veteran who would like to appeal a pension or a disability decision with the tribunal. They are available at a number of locations throughout Canada. They also have a toll-free line where they can be reached.
We also have local veterans organizations, such as the Royal Canadian Legion, that offer services at their various branches. We provide training for the service officers on how to fill out applications and assist veterans in applying for benefits and services.
We also have a partnership with Service Canada, which offers assistance with accessing our services and programs throughout their 600 points of service across the country.
There is another part of the mandate of Veterans Affairs Canada. Not only does it provide services and benefits for veterans, but it also includes commemorating the contributions and sacrifices of our veterans.
The Canada remembers program endeavours to keep alive the achievements and sacrifices made by those who served Canada in times of war, military conflict, and peace, and to promote an understanding of the significance of those efforts in Canadian life as we know it today. We also have the maintenance of the government's memorials and cemetery program. We have the community engagement partnership fund. So far we have 128 projects approved with a total funding of more than $1 million. In addition, we have the cenotaph and monument restoration program, through which we have approved 55 projects for a total of $409,000. We have the community war memorial program, where we have approved 16 projects for a total of almost $573,000.
The recent budget announced $65 million over two years to enhance the funeral and burial program. The plan for this investment is to simplify the program for veterans' estates. As well, it has more than doubled the funeral service reimbursement rate, from $3,600 to $7,376.
We also support national and international ceremonies and events for commemoration. We also develop material for the promotion of learning opportunities, educational material, and public information regarding commemoration.
Regarding the outcomes of some of the programs, Canadians' attitudes toward veterans remain strongly positive. Virtually 91% believe that Canada's veterans should be recognized for their service to Canada. There is also widespread acknowledgement that Canada's veterans have made major contributions to the development of our country. A large majority of Canadians, 84%, consider Veterans' Week to be important, with 64% saying that they consider it to be very important. Approximately 76% of Canadians said they participated in Veterans' Week in 2012. This rate of participation is slightly higher than the rate in 2011, which was 73%.
We also have the wreaths for parliamentarians program, which provides wreaths to parliamentarians who represent the Government of Canada by laying commemorative wreaths during Remembrance Day ceremonies in their constituencies. The wreaths can be ordered from September to November by calling a 1-800 number.
We also make 10 Canadian flags available to members of Parliament for the sole purpose of providing a flag to families of veterans who have passed away. The flags can be ordered by contacting Canadian Heritage.
As I mentioned earlier, the commemorative wreaths program is also available to parliamentarians. Please do not hesitate to make use of it. Wreaths can be ordered from September to November. All you have to do is contact the Department of Veterans Affairs at the toll free number on the screen.
That concludes my presentation. We would be pleased to answer any questions.
View Peter Stoffer Profile
NDP (NS)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Bastien and Mr. Cormier, thank you very much for coming today.
In your first statement, you indicated that those who communicate with the department may be eligible for benefits if they qualify. You indicated that 211,000 people are now receiving benefits from the department in one way or the other. However, there are well over 700,000 military and RCMP veterans out there. That means almost three-quarters of the veteran population are not being assisted by VAC.
In your comments you mentioned those who communicate with the department. Shouldn't that be turned around? This is the first question of several that I'll ask right away. Shouldn't the department be communicating with them, reaching out to them and saying, “If you're a veteran, contact us”? Anywhere from 5,000 to 8,000 people, if not more, leave the armed forces and the RCMP on a regular basis every year. Shouldn't the department immediately, from the minute they leave, be tracking them and calling them periodically just to find out how they're doing? They become veterans, although maybe not VAC clients. You're putting the onus on the veteran to contact the department. Personally, I think it should be the other way around. That's the first question.
Second, on page 9 you talk about how most eligible veterans receive $40,000 a year. First of all, how many veterans actually receive that earnings loss benefit? What is the complete total? What happens after age 65?
Third, you talked about the Helmets to Hardhats program and how private companies are now stepping up and hiring veterans, which is a very good thing. How many veterans are hired by the public service? One of the things in the Veterans Charter was that they would get priority in public service hiring. How many departments in the Government of Canada have hired veterans? Maybe not now, but if you get a chance later on, if you could break down which department has hired how many veterans and where they are, that would be most helpful.
Last, I understand the government announced yesterday a new app for iPhones and cellphones, which is a very good thing for those people who can adapt and use those kinds of communication tools. At the same time, the government is closing eight district offices across the country. My experience is that for people with very complex needs and very diverse needs, an app is not going to cut it. What they need is that physical one-on-one opportunity to speak to a warm body, to speak to someone in person who is able to assist them in their needs so they can get the comfort and the assurance they require in order to achieve some sort of normalcy in their lives and to be able to move forward.
Those are my comments for you right now. I do thank you both very much for coming.
By the way, with respect to the Korean War commemorations, the folks who organized that did a great job. My compliments to them.
View Peter Stoffer Profile
NDP (NS)
The third question was regarding the app program that was announced yesterday, and the fact that at the same time you're announcing these new opportunities through technology, you're closing down the traditional services and bases and everything else.
The fourth one was the priority service for hiring.
Charlotte Bastien
View Charlotte Bastien Profile
Charlotte Bastien
2013-05-07 9:21
One of the questions was with the priority for employment. I don't have the data with me, but that's something we will take note of and send you the breakdown of statistics we have for that.
Regarding the announcement, I don't think people should interpret that this tool is meant for all. It's another tool in the suite of tools to assist individuals who have a mental health condition. Not everybody wants face-to-face contact. You'd be surprised. That being said, many people appreciate and prefer to have face-to-face contact, but there are individuals who prefer to use some technology, whether it's the Internet or the application to research or manage certain aspects of their issues that way. We launched this application to offer another channel to assist those individuals who might prefer that way of dealing with certain issues.
View Paul Calandra Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you.
I just want to be careful with my time. How much do I have?
The Chair: You have two and a half minutes.
Mr. Paul Calandra: Perfect.
This is not a criticism, but with respect to how National Defence allows these stories to get out there, obviously, it wasn't easy for your son to access these stories through the Internet. I wonder if you have any suggestions. This is an extraordinary start, obviously. You can see that some media have joined us today, because I'm sure they're excited to hear about this operation. How easy was it to get resources from the Government of Canada websites on this?
Stephen Gregory
View Stephen Gregory Profile
Stephen Gregory
2013-05-06 15:54
There is just not much written about the Canadian involvement in Sicily. You might remember Farley Mowat. Farley Mowat actually was in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment. He was at the Battle of Assoro. He, as well as Lord Tweedsmuir, wrote more about it than anyone else did. Some Canadian authors have produced some material, but really, quite frankly, I don't think the government could do anything. There's just nothing written about it. The only people who have written about this are people the likes of Granatstein, Terry Copp, Dr. Windsor, and Mark Zuehlke. But this is the work of historians at universities and colleges, not of our government.
I can only tell you the experience that we've had with Veterans Affairs, Foreign Affairs in particular, and National Defence. We didn't ask for anything, first of all. We wanted this to be a civilian project. We weren't coming to the government for anything, but it was pretty obvious that producing the book was going to be outside of our means and would fit within the Veterans Affairs' mandate. We undertook a request for funding a few years back, and they were phenomenal. They were exceptional.
Chantal Amyot
View Chantal Amyot Profile
Chantal Amyot
2013-05-06 16:36
Thank you.
The Canadian Museum of Civilization—soon to become the Canadian Museum of History—is, with our sister institution, the Canadian War Museum, the country's national repository of historical knowledge. Last October the government announced a new name and mandate for the museum, which will enable us to better fulfill our role in researching and communicating Canadian history to the Canadian people and the world. It is a challenge we accept with excitement.
Chief among our plans is a major new exhibition hall dedicated to a comprehensive, narrative history of Canada. Historical knowledge is embodied in many things. We are a museum, so for us it includes, at the most basic level, our national collection of historic artifacts, including everything from Champlain's astrolabe to ancient stone arrowheads to Sir John A. Macdonald's desk. We have the country's only large and nationally representative historical collection. It is usually numbered at about 3.5 million objects, a figure that could easily mislead as many could be best considered as scientific samples rather than objets d'art.
Let's begin with a brief overview of best practices in acquiring, preserving, and protecting our historical collections. As museums change, so do the collections upon which they are based. New acquisitions bring different perspectives to existing collections, new areas of research and interpretation are initiated, and the capacity to represent a changing society is enhanced. At the same time, old collections can sometimes lose their meaning, as expertise shifts and the museum's role in a larger society evolves.
A major challenge for any museum is to determine what items it will collect and what items it will keep, how the collections will be organized, and how they will be preserved for future generations. The museums follow rigorous practices for selecting and accessioning material into the national collection. Relevance to the museums' mandates and documentary evidence to this are of primary importance. However, costs and capacity to preserve and protect are reality checks when weighing the merits of any acquisition. A responsible collection plan includes the careful comparative examination of existing holdings and the possible refinement of the collection, to ensure that only the most viable material is retained.
The Canadian Museum of Civilization is a cutting-edge preservation centre with a great capacity to control environments, and provide security access measures and accessibility to the collections for research and exhibitions. We have come a long way from the days of the substandard, warehouse-like, satellite repositories of the not-so-distant past. So, too, have our knowledge and techniques for ensuring the mitigation of risks associated with long-term storage, handling, exhibiting, and lending of the national collections.
As central to our mandate as they are, objects by themselves tell us nothing. We need to determine what they mean, and that is the museum's real job: we not only preserve and protect, we also research and communicate meaning. In other words, we use objects—and other assets like images, archival documents and sound recordings—to tell the story of our country. The museum employs about 25 research curators, normally with doctoral degrees in history, archeology and allied disciplines, to research the objects themselves and their historical contexts. These research curators then work with other specialists in interpreting and presenting this information to the public. We do this using a number of media and types of presentations.
As a museum, the most typical of these is the physical exhibition. They can be permanent exhibitions, which means they can last anywhere from 15 to 25 years, or temporary, for a few months.
As a key part of our recent name and mandate change from the government, the CMC is currently planning our biggest and most ambitious such exhibition since we opened at our present location 24 years ago. This is the new Canadian history hall. It will replace the current Canada Hall and Canadian Personalities Hall and encompass about 45,000 square feet of exhibition space. For the first time in Canadian museological history, we will tell the comprehensive story of Canada from beginning to now. Louis Riel will be there. The conscription crisis of 1917 will be there, Expo 67, Champlain, the first Viking visitors to our shores, and the arrival of the first human beings at the end of the last ice age.
We have put together research teams who are working on the storyline and finding and researching objects, images, and other exhibitable things. We have also engaged museologists and interpretive specialists to work with the curatorial team on messaging and thematic development to help make the content come alive. We want a result that will engage and enthrall our visitors, to communicate to Canadians and the world that Canadian history is vital and important.
At the heart of the development of these products are the various needs of the audience. Knowledge and understanding of these audiences helps determine the best means by which objects and research can be presented in an engaging and stimulating manner. Across a variety of projects, the museum regularly conducts audience research through surveys, interviews, product testing, and other visitor studies. The application of these studies combined with up-to-date learning theories help ensure that the museum delivers a powerful learning experience as part of the museum visit.
The new Canadian history hall project is an example of this principle in practice. In this case an extensive public engagement exercise has taken place across Canada and online, consulting thousands of Canadians about what they would like to see, experience, and access in the new Canadian Museum of History. Currently, the team responsible for the new permanent exhibition are collating and reviewing these findings, which will be applied directly to the development of the new museum. We are also consulting with history experts through various consultative committees and brainstorming sessions to ensure that we get the right content, that it is factual and balanced, and that it presents different perspectives on complicated issues.
In the 21st century, a great deal more is expected of museums than the traditional physical exhibition. But even that has changed. Where 50 years ago a history exhibition might consist of a group of important objects with some accompanying text, we now seek a much more ambitious storyline, something approaching three-dimensional journalism. For the new Canadian History Hall, we remain dedicated to the physical exhibition as still central to our mandate. Only here can a visitor see, directly and personally, the “real thing”. Not an image of the real thing, but the actual first Maple Leaf flag to fly over Parliament Hill in 1965, or the handgun that shot D'Arcy McGee.
Our dedication to the “real thing”, however, is not absolute, and in a digital age so much more is possible. With smart phones and apps like Augmented Reality, we can program in a great deal of additional information that the visitor can access at will. We are already experimenting with digital applications at the museum, and you can expect to see a great deal of them in the new Canadian History Hall.
For example, the museum owns a small wooden carving found in an Inuit archeological site on Baffin Island. Carved in a typical Inuit style, this artifact, which is approximately 650 years old, depicts what is evidently a European, presumably a Norseman or Viking, wearing a surcoat or robe, with a cross faintly incised on the chest. Therefore, it suggests that there was direct contact between the Inuit and Europeans.
Visually this object is extremely unimpressive, not much more than 2 inches tall. Some of its meaning, its significance, can be communicated through text, of course, but with digital applications we can now do so much more. We can program in a brief interview with a subject expert, insert a film clip, add a map to show where it was found, or photos of the archeological site. We can allow the visitor to digitally manipulate the object or the image of the object, flip it around and see what it looks like from every angle. We can also allow the visitor to log comments or email a photo of the object to herself at home. And that's just what we can do now. By the time we open the new History Hall in 2017, who knows what may be possible.
A slightly older medium of presentation that has become standard is the website. CMC has a large and ambitious website featuring all kinds of information, including archived exhibitions. We also host digital exhibitions that go straight to the web, of which the largest recent example is the “Virtual Museum of New France”. It is just being finished and encompasses about 45 sections or chapters and 300 images, generally in colour. Many of these offerings are produced with the support of the Virtual Museum of Canada project at Canadian Heritage.
Another Heritage ministry program we took maximum advantage of was Canadian culture online, which allowed us to make available online many thousands of historic objects from our collection. Much of our collection is now available online to scholars, first nations, and the general public.
For the new history hall project we anticipate a comprehensive and interactive supporting web program, although we must admit we haven't begun to plan it yet.
Cyberspace isn't our only frontier. We also send exhibitions to other public museums, particularly in Canada, but also around the world. At any given moment we usually have about a dozen exhibitions touring the country, the largest and most important travelling exhibition program in the country. We also share expertise and provide loans to Canadian museums and international partners, and are actively involved in developing the Heritage ministry network of Canadian history museums.
For the new history hall we will also be working with educators to develop and provide content for school curricula. The Canadian Museum of Civilization offers a wide range of school programs that meet provincial guidelines and curricula. They are available for students from preschool through secondary school and offer interactive educational experiences in fields of study ranging from geography and citizenship to history and cultural studies. The programs enable students to learn about the people, places, and events that helped shape our country and the world. Programs, tours, and special event days attract over 40,000 students to the museum each year.
This represents a very fast and basic overview of what the Canadian Museum of History is already doing and will continue to do to preserve, protect, and enhance Canadian history at the level of a national museum. Thank you for your attention
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