Response to Parliamentary Committees and External Audits

House of Commons

Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs (ACVA)

In June 2022, ACVA tabled its 5^th report, Desecration of Monuments Honouring Veterans. The report examined the widely reported desecration at the War Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that occurred during the Ottawa trucker convoy protests in early 2022, and offered three recommendations for the Government to improve coordination and response to such incidents in the future.

• Report 5 - The Protection of Monuments Dedicated to Canadian Veterans was presented in the House of Commons on 13 June 2022.
  • A Government Response to the report was presented in the House of Commons on 6 October 2022. It agreed to all three of the Committee’s recommendations. Specifically, the response to Recommendation 3 was led by Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), and outlined proposed action items to increase public education on the importance of Canada’s national war memorials and monuments.

In June 2022, ACVA tabled its 6^th report, Incorporating Service Dogs into the Rehabilitation Program of Veterans Affairs Canada. The report examined the current research on psychiatric service dogs as well as existing programs adopted by Canada’s international counterparts. The report offered six recommendations to the Government to establish national standards and regulations surrounding psychiatric service dogs in Canada, as well as increase research funding and institute cost-covering measures for Veterans requiring service dogs under certain conditions.

• Report 6 - Incorporating Service Dogs into the Rehabilitation Program of Veterans Affairs Canada was presented in the House of Commons on 16 June 2022.
  • A Government Response to the report was presented in the House of Commons on 6 October 2022, which provided individual responses to the Committee’s recommendations.

In June 2022, ACVA tabled its 7^th report, Fairness in the Services Offered to Francophone, Women and 2SLGBTQ+ Veterans. The report examined the excess wait times suffered by Francophone Veterans in the processing of their disability benefits applications, as well as the ongoing individual and systemic challenges faced by women and 2SLGBTQ+ Veterans. It offered eleven recommendations on ways the Government can improve service delivery to these Veteran groups.

• Report 7 - Fairness in the Services Offered to Francophone, Women and 2SLGBTQ+ Veterans was presented in the House of Commons on 22 June 2022.
  • A Government Response to the report was presented in the House of Commons on 20 October 2022, which outlined ongoing and proposed initiatives to improve service delivery.

In December 2022, ACVA tabled its 9^th report, Survivor Retirement Pension Benefits (Marriage After 60). The report looked at the policy and legislation surrounding Veteran survivor pension benefits, and offered nine recommendations for the Government to ensure that survivors of CAF and RCMP Veterans have the financial support they need, and recommended the repeal of the “marriage after 60 clause” in both the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superannuation Act.

• Report 9 - Survivor Retirement Pension Benefits (Marriage After 60) was presented in the House of Commons on 14 December 2022.
  • A Government Response to the report was presented in the House of Commons on 30 March 2023, which provided individual responses to the Committee’s recommendations.

Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PACP)

In February 2023, PACP tabled its 25^th report, Processing Disability Benefits for Veterans , Report 2 of the 2022 Reports 1 to 4 of the Auditor General of Canada. The report examined the main findings of the Auditor General of Canada concerning VAC’s service standard for the processing of disability benefit applications, and made six recommendations to the Department to address excess processing times.

• Report 25 - Processing Disability Benefits for Veterans was presented in the House of Commons on 14 February 2023.
  • A Government Response to the report was presented in the House of Commons on 8 June 2023, which agreed with the Committee’s recommendations and outlined proposed and ongoing action items to address the issue. In addition to the Government Response, VAC had previously provided a departmental Management Response and Action Plan to the committee on 19 October 2022.

Senate of Canada

There were no Senate committee reports requiring a response by Veterans Affairs Canada in 2022-23.

Title and chapter of the report: 2022 Report 2 – Processing Disability Benefits for Veterans Auditor General of Canada

Brief Summary: This audit focused on Veterans Affairs Canada’s efficiency of processing disability benefit applications, including the factors that contribute to inefficiencies, the impact on Veterans, and the recent efforts made by the department to improve application processing and wait times. The audit scope included the first applications for and reassessments of disability benefits for current and former members of the Canadian Armed Forces and the RCMP that were processed by Veterans Affairs Canada during the period covered by the audit. Report 2—Processing Disability Benefits for Veterans (oag-bvg.gc.ca).

Describe corrective actions taken:

• Developed a formal costing process for the processing of CAF and RCMP applications. The new framework, which takes into consideration both the forecasted number and anticipated complexity of applications, will be used to identify the resource and funding requirements for the 2023 VAC/RCMP Memorandum of Understanding renewal.
• Clarified the definition of “processing time” for the purposes of calculating the service standard for Disability Pension/Pain and Suffering Compensation applications. The processing time starts when an application and all necessary documents have been received, and end when the final decision is made (if favourable, this includes the payment being computed and verified).
• Created clear roles and responsibilities and supporting governance to tackle data issues within the department. (Chief Data Officer, Executive Data Stewarts Committee)
• Made significant improvements to the data warehousing to support disability processing reporting. This included merging data from the two processing systems GCCase and CSDN and the needed relationships to provide holistic reporting.
• Created common definitions of disability processing steps and components to standardize reporting and enable detailed reporting with respect to processing.
• Created a standardized data set for disability processing, allowing detailed reporting on processing and statistics surrounding the program.
• Developed a Data Dictionary user interface, linked to the data warehouse, that allows users to more accurately identify the data elements when building reports.
• Expanded the Disability Benefits dataset to include the ability to report on application stage history to allow for analysis on processing bottlenecks. The work involved to deliver this functionality included the addition of GC Case and CSDN medical codes to the dataset by application stage.
• Continued working with Central Agencies to explore options to obtain long-term resources in the future.
• Updated the June 2020 strategic wait time plan in 2022-23, which further capture and illustrate VAC efforts to reduce processing times.

There were no audits in 2022–23 requiring a response.