Stakeholder Summit Record of Discussion / Compte rendu des discussions du Sommet des intervenants
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Stakeholder Summit Record of Discussion / Compte rendu des discussions du Sommet des intervenants
VVi 10 Feb 2017 db
Le français suit.
The Record of Discussion for the Stakeholder Summit held in Gatineau, Québec on October 5 and 6, 2016 is now available on the Veterans Affairs Canada web site at http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/about-us/stakeholder-engagement/05-10-2016
We apologize for the delay in the posting.
Should you have comments on the Record of Discussion, please submit them via the Have Your Say icon located on the same page.
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Le compte rendu des discussions du Sommet des intervenants qui s’est tenu à Gatineau, au Québec, les 5 et 6 octobre 2016, est maintenant disponible sur le site Web d’Anciens Combattants Canada au http://www.veterans.gc.ca/fra/about-us/stakeholder-engagement/05-10-2016
Nous sommes désolés d’avoir tardé à le mettre en ligne.
Vous pouvez soumettre vos commentaires à propos du compte rendu des discussions en cliquant sur l’icône À vous la parole qui se trouve sur la même page.
Supplement
VVi 10 Feb 2017 db
VVi Chief Editor Letter to MVAC:
Kent,
I am writing to you after receiving a very disturbing letter from the Ottawa District, which is attached. In my opinion, no Veteran should ever be sent such a letter, and yet this is my second. It is devoid of the care, compassion and respect that you and your senior bureaucrats discuss at every meeting with Veterans. Also absent is the concept of client centred service.
When I visited the district office in November to re-negotiate terms of service to be provided by the staff, I made it very clear that I prefer to be contacted by e-mail. Unfortunately, Chantal Picard, the acting director and Director, Special Projects, was too engrossed in talking at me rather than talking with me. In other words she was not listening to me. This was disrespectful.
It was very difficult to participate in this meeting because I have very bad memories of the district office, which I discussed with your staff in Charlottetown. Going to the district triggers my PTSD so it is a challenge to be attentive and be able to retain information. It would be nice if your staff actually read the handbook on PTSD and War-Related Stress. Too often I feel that they do not have any inkling of what Veterans are experiencing or have experienced.
I was accompanied by Sean Bruyea, who can verify the above as we discussed it after the meeting with Chantal ended. He had also suggested to Chantal that he be contacted if the district had problems communicating with me. When I informed him of the attached letter, he was also upset by its tone, and furthermore had not been contacted by the district office to inquire after me. His response was "This is a reprehensible letter".
It is expected that there will commonly be delays in getting service from your department as long experience as both a client and an advocate have taught me. Several of my e-mails have gone unanswered despite repeated assurances that someone would respond, so I was not upset that it took more than three months to be contacted by the person assigned as my case manager. I just was not expected to read an ultimatum.
What if I had not read the letter until after her 18 February deadline?
Was the district office going to place my client file in the garbage? Were all my benefits going to be terminated?
If you think that I am joking, please note that my CFSA monthly benefits were ended in November 2016 because the pension centre did not have any contact information. The contact information on record was more than 15 years out of date. Fortunately, I did not have to wait months for a resumption in payments (unlike over 13,000 Veterans).
So if you want Canadians to believe you are very concerned about your motto of care, compassion and respect, then make sure all of your departmental employees understand it and also practice it.
I shall be sharing my story with other Veterans, and discussing it at the next summit. It is unlikely that this is an isolated case, given that it was my second letter, so who in your department is responsible for ordering that the following be added to letters sent to clients:
"If I do not hear from you before (insert date), your VAC file will be closed."
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