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House Hansard - 18

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 15, 2021 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 18 - Dec/15/21
Mr. Darrell Samson (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, Lib.)
  • Dec/15/21 6:54:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo for his question. Of course, I appreciate the opportunity to respond. Once again, it is an honour to be parliamentary secretary for Veterans Affairs. My riding of Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook has one of the highest per capita populations of veterans in Canada, and it is an honour to represent them. First, I would thank all past and present members of the Canadian Armed Forces and their families for the sacrifices they have made to keep us safe inside and outside of our country. It is not uncommon for some CAF members to leave the military bearing physical or mental wounds from their service. What they do is hard and gritty work that most of us cannot imagine, yet they do it anyway, well aware of the hazards and risks they will have to face along the way. As a government, we know we have the responsibility for veterans and the Canadian Armed Forces and their families, whether they go to Veterans Affairs to improve their physical or mental health, to get financial assistance or some help to find a job, or maybe to learn about the post-service training and education we offer. The department has programs and services available to them. We recognize that some veterans are sometimes frustrated with the process and indeed that case managers are dealing with a heavy workload. Our government is grateful to them for the good work they are doing to manage this difficult situation and to ensure that all veterans, including those with complex needs, are receiving timely and efficient services. I can also say that on many occasions this year, the Minister of Veterans Affairs has expressed his appreciation to his staff for their hard work and urged employees to always take care of themselves. More concretely, here are some of the steps our government has taken to address this issue. Going back to 2018, Veterans Affairs received temporary funding for additional case managers. In November 2021, there were 476 case workers at the department, which is double the number of case workers since 2016. They are there to support veterans who are facing complex challenges. It is a collaborative process between veterans and their case manager teams to identify needs and goals and to create a plan to help veterans achieve independence, health and well-being. The case management efforts aim to ensure that all veterans receive the support they need when they need it. As recently as last month, our minister committed to hiring even more staff, as we indicated in our platform. We have also implemented several initiatives to improve management practices, like implementing guided supports, which sees a veterans services agent work to support veterans with various challenges. These are some of the large-scale changes we have made, and we continue to work toward implementing them fully. However, the fact that we are making these investments for veterans services shows we are placing a high priority on ensuring that veterans and their families receive the supports they need.
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Context: House Hansard - 18 - Dec/15/21
Mr. Darrell Samson
  • Dec/15/21 7:00:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada's veterans have all made enormous sacrifices, for which we are very grateful. We recognize our responsibility to them and in particular to those who come to Veterans Affairs Canada with complex post-career cases that require close attention. We recently invested nearly $200 million to improve services to veterans and ensure we make decisions in a more timely manner. That investment is paying off and we are already seeing major decreases in the backlog of claims. We will continue to do everything we can to make sure that our veterans and their families are assessed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
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