Veterans Affairs Canada employees struggling with new rehab contract for vets

Employees at Veterans Affairs Canada are struggling this summer to try and implement a new rehab contract for veterans. As the union representing employees at the department, including the case managers who have the greatest responsibility for this work, we have been trying to get the minister’s attention to what we feel is an impending crisis affecting both employees and the veterans they have the honour to serve. On June 14, we wrote to Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay with a request for him to intervene. We heard nothing back for a month and then finally received a form-type letter from the deputy minister on his behalf. We know the minister is busy, but we were hoping that the political leader of this department would respond personally and not pass it off to staff. We have written to the minister again to remind him of the mandate he received from the prime minister which is to: “Continue to reduce wait-times and ensure veterans and their families receive decisions on applications in a timely manner, including by investing resources to hire case workers and adjudicators, enhance disability benefit processing and advance innovative digital solutions.” We will also remind him that case managers at Veterans Affairs Canada who are worried about their jobs, their futures, and the veterans they serve, are hoping to hear from him as well. They deserve to hear directly from the minister. They would like to hear when Veterans Affairs Canada is going to honour the commitments to lower case loads that now range from 30 to 50 (and sometimes more) veterans each. They would also like the minister to address their concerns about this new contract for rehabilitation services for veterans and their families. Namely, as we pointed out in our letter of June 14, that this contract expands the contracting-out of the work of existing employees and transfers those responsibilities to the private sector. This expanded contract puts an additional barrier between veterans and their case managers and will create undue delays and hardships for our treasured veterans. We have received information from case managers across Canada that there will be major problems with implementing this contract and that the department does not have adequate internal resources to meet the challenges that this contract will create. Even worse, they are worried that veterans and their families will simply not be able to access the services they need to continue their successful transition to civilian life. The departmental officials at Veterans Affairs Canada may be telling the minister that everything is okay, but we can assure you that is not the message we are hearing from case managers, and other staff who are on the front lines serving veterans. We are also concerned that Veterans Affairs Canada is contracting out the work of serving veterans with rehabilitation needs to a large corporation which has shareholders to satisfy as their No. 1 priority. For our members, veterans are the only priority. They have already fought for Canada. They shouldn’t have to fight again for the care they deserve. Veterans Affairs Canada already employs highly qualified and professional case managers trained to serve veterans. Instead, their work is being outsourced and veterans’ services are being reduced. In our view and in the view of the case managers we represent, we have a crisis in waiting and need immediate action and intervention. We will continue to call on Veterans Affairs Canada to delay implementation of this contract until the concerns of the staff have been addressed. If Veterans Affairs Canada cannot prove that this new contract will not do any harm or cause further delays to any veteran, it should be cancelled. We would still like a meeting with the minister to discuss our concerns about this contract and staffing shortages at the department. At the very minimum, we would like a personal statement from the minister in public on the issues facing employees at Veterans Affairs Canada. That seems like the least he could do. Our members, case managers, and veterans are waiting. Virginia Vaillancourt is national president of the Union of Veterans' Affairs Employees. The Hill Times