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Results: 1 - 15 of 539
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
Good morning to you, Minister Barker. It's late in the afternoon for us.
I must tell you, before I begin, that I'm quite impressed with the workload you carry. I've looked at your CV, and you're not only the Minister of Veterans' Affairs, you're the Minister of Courts, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Minister of Civil Defence, and the Associate Minister of Justice. I'm the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and I am very grateful that he does not carry all these other portfolios. I can't imagine what that would be like.
With regard to some of the things that were said earlier, Agent Orange is an issue that we resolved fairly early in the mandate of this government--probably not to everyone's satisfaction, but it was something that had not been resolved for many years, so we took care of that.
There was another comment made that I would like to clarify for you, so you don't leave with the wrong impression. Our government knows where our veterans are, but because of privacy issues, we don't disclose a list of veterans to individual MPs. As individual MPs, we have the ability to send to all our constituents any kind of information we want, and that includes veterans. It might not be satisfactory to all, but it's better than not knowing where they are, for sure.
We have a program in Canada we call the VIP program, the veterans independence program. You alluded to wanting to go down that same route. You sound like you have some of those parts in place already, if not all of them. We've managed to add another 24,000 “Margarets”, if you will, in the last two years. We're very proud of that.
We'll have to talk about this off the air sometime, but I'm very interested in your Hire A Hubby program. That sounds very intriguing.
Voices: Oh, oh!
Mrs. Betty Hinton: I'm also very interested in what you mentioned earlier. I think if I heard you correctly, it's not in place yet, but it's coming, and that is a card with a chip when people leave the military. One of the things we've discussed is that we don't want to lose anyone in the transition from active military to the veterans portfolio. That would be interesting, if you could answer that.
I'm doing all this talking, because he's going to cut me off, so if I ask you the questions, I'm okay.
One of your core values, as stated on your website, is to ensure consistency and accuracy. How do you ensure that services provided by the department are delivered in a consistent and accurate manner? That would be my first question.
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
That's very interesting.
The other comment you made was that the department doesn't deliver the service. In Canada, our department does deliver the service. We don't contract out per se, the way I'm assuming you're talking about, so that's an interesting thing.
I was also very interested to hear you say that just having been in uniform doesn't make you a veteran. We've had a number of presentations where exactly the opposite point of view has been expressed, that if you served your country, whether you were deployed or you weren't, you're a veteran. So it's rather interesting to hear you say that.
In terms of needing treatment, are you saying that contact person in your country is the one who makes those decisions as to whether a veteran requires treatment, or is there another process in place?
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
He's flashing me the card.
I'm going to ask a real quick question. What services or benefits are most utilized by veterans living in New Zealand?
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
I'd like to begin by saying there are very few people anywhere on the grounds that I have more respect for than the two witnesses today. I have worked closely with both of you. It was an experience I will never forget, and it was an experience that made me grow as a person. So when I make my first comment, I hope you understand that I do it with all due respect.
I don't think that making this room a veterans room would detract in any way, shape, or form from the other wonderful monuments that you've mentioned. I think you'd be the first to realize that we simply can't meet in any of the places you've mentioned. We can't meet in the Peace Tower; we can't meet in the Memorial Chamber; we can't meet outside the Baker monument. So we need a room in which we can welcome veterans from this country to talk about their problems, talk about their issues, and try to find solutions.
I think if you have paid attention at all to this committee you'd have found out that it's probably the most non-partisan committee in the entire House of Commons. We all have one goal, and that goal is veterans.
We'd like a place to which we can bring veterans. You mentioned the humble surroundings that are here. While I've worked with veterans now for close to six years, I will tell you, if I had to find one word to describe veterans, the word would be “humble”. So I don't think there will be any offence taken by any veteran who comes in here to tell us what his or her issues are and look for solutions from us, because the surroundings are not ornate and gorgeous. It's a humble room that reflects what I consider the epitome of a veteran: they are very humble.
So I would ask you very respectfully to reconsider, because I think it's important and I think it's necessary that we have a place where veterans will feel comfortable, where we can actually put things on the walls that reflect veterans. I'm more than willing to donate some of my own pieces that I've collected over the years.
I think it's important that we do this, and I again respectfully ask you to reconsider your decision.
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
I think that my colleague said whatever I was about to say. I was going to ask you if there had ever been a problem with having other meetings in the Railway Room once it was no longer used for the railways. But I think that's redundant right now.
I trust your judgment, and I have for quite a long time. I will leave you with the thoughts of this committee and let you make a decision and get back to us.
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you very much for coming today.
One of the things you said was that the German legislature takes care of veterans. I believe I heard you say that. Are you talking about just in general, and do you use the ombudsman when there's a serious issue for veterans, since there doesn't seem to be a veterans affairs department? Is that correct?
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
It was interesting also to hear that you don't have any sort of VIP program, and if I heard you correctly, you said that it's a matter of being self-insured. So if a person is looking for care in their older years....
In your country, everybody serves. You were saying that it's mandatory. We don't do that here, so I suppose maybe the difference in approach would be that when you have a country in which every single citizen serves, you wouldn't put programs in place for a specific group of people who serve, as is the case in Canada. So it's kind of hard to compare. You're basically talking about the defence side of things more than the veterans side of things, because in your country there isn't a veterans program.
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
I can come back to that, but you mentioned something else. My interpretation was that a regular or career soldier serves somewhere between two and 20 years, and that's when you get the family health costs paid at 80%. Then, after service, you do the education and the training, and it's 75% of the salary and the costs of the training.
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
We have a program that does that too. When a soldier leaves the service, we pay for retraining, and if the soldier is not in a position to be retrained, we will train the spouse. Do you have a similar system, or is it the soldier or nobody?
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
The last thing you mentioned was one of the things that stuck in my mind. You said that when people serve their country, their jobs are safe and secure, so that when they do come back, their jobs are waiting for them. We just did that last year. I think it's important that if you're going to serve your country as a reservist, you shouldn't have to worry about having a job when you come back, so it's nice to see that parallel.
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you very much. My time is up.
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you, and thank you very much, High Commissioner, for what I consider to be a fascinating oral history of the ties between Canada and Australia at the beginning. It was wonderful to hear it repeated.
I also agree with you. We don't have to reinvent the wheel either, and we have absolutely no problem poaching good ideas from other countries, so you're welcome to take what you want from us as well.
I know this chair well, and he's going to cut me off when my time comes up, so I'm going to ask you four questions. Please just take note to see whether you can answer.
In Australia—this is asked out of ignorance—do you have situations such as we have in Canada of provincial governments whose jurisdiction covers health care, or is it all a federal responsibility? That's the first question.
Do you have a doctor or professional shortage in Australia such as we face here in Canada?
The next two questions are a little bit easier. You recently established your At Ease website, which is designed to improve mental health amongst veterans. What prompted the establishment of that initiative?
The last question is about the At Ease website. There is a phone number for a 24-hour hotline. Do you know how many people have called the hotline since the creation of the website?
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
He'll let you answer. He won't cut you off.
Your answer raises another question.
View Betty Hinton Profile
CPC (BC)
I'm going to jump in for just a second.
What you raised, High Commissioner, I find very interesting. When the federal level started to take on more of the responsibility for the health care aspect of things—rather than provinces, you have states in Australia—did they scale back the funding that went to the states to compensate for the fact that they were picking up a larger share of it, or did things remain status quo? Did the states still have the same amount of funding, or did that funding get scaled back when the federal level took over some of the aspects of health care?
Results: 1 - 15 of 539 | Page: 1 of 36

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