THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Wednesday, February 14, 2024
The Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs met this day at 12 p.m. [ET] for the Election of the Chair; and the Election of the Deputy Chair.
[English]
Ericka Dupont, Clerk of the Committee: Good afternoon, honourable senators. I wish to inform you that there is a vacancy in the chair. As clerk of your subcommittee, it is my duty to preside over the election of your new chair. I’m ready to receive a motion to that effect.
Senator McNair: I would like to nominate the Honourable Senator Rebecca Patterson for the position of chair. When you look at her resumé and her background, she’s the perfect person for this role.
Ms. Dupont: Thank you, senator. Are there other nominations? Seeing none, it is moved by the Honourable Senator McNair that the Honourable Senator Patterson do take the chair of this subcommittee.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Ms. Dupont: I declare the motion carried and invite the Honourable Senator Patterson to take the chair.
Senator Rebecca Patterson (Chair) in the chair.
The Chair: Thank you, senators, for supporting me this morning. I really do look forward to the work we’re doing together. I’ll say a few words here. I do have to follow a script. I thank you for this. It’s a unique position to be in as one of the two federal veterans in the Senate. The world of being a veteran is a world in and of itself. Too often the invisible people in our society, whom I support, have as one of their intersections of identity their service as a member or a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces or RCMP. I look forward to the work we get to do together.
I now move to the balance of today’s business. As you know, our very dear colleague Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu retired last week. There’s an event today for him. His departure has also left a vacancy in the subcommittee. We will greatly miss him and his passion and advocacy for the veterans community, from which in my previous life I had personally benefitted. That being said, we now need to duly elect a deputy chair.
I will ask at this time for nominations for this position.
I move that the Honourable Senator Oh be deputy chair of the subcommittee based on his experience and enthusiasm in the realm of helping all veterans.
Are there any other nominations before I proceed? Because we’re such a huge committee.
Seeing none, is it agreed that Senator Oh will be designated deputy chair of the subcommittee? Is it agreed?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: I declare the motion carried.
Colleagues, this concludes today’s agenda.
Senator M. Deacon: This is all timing. I think I’m right. Senator McNair, is this your first meeting?
Senator McNair: I’m sitting in for Senator Yussuff today.
Senator M. Deacon: I didn’t think I had seen you here before. Thank you for coming. I didn’t know if the Chair knew that because of the different people coming and going.
The Chair: I turned up, too. That’s an extremely good point. Thank you. We hope you do continue to visit.
Senator McNair: I would like that.
The Chair: You have interests in both security and defence and in veterans. We look forward to welcoming you back whenever you wish, until you are a permanent member. How does that sound?
Senator McNair: Thank you.
The Chair: That concludes today’s agenda items. We have an option now. We can use the balance of our time to consider future work of the subcommittee in camera, or we can bring forward any points you’d like here since we’re all kind of new. Senator Deacon is the experienced one here. If you’d like to discuss anything in public first, please go ahead.
Senator M. Deacon: Sure. It’s been a very interesting committee with the work that we have done over the past 15 months. As we have had some changes in our executive team and in our chair, I am looking forward, as one of our jump-off points, to backtrack a little bit on the study that we did. As you know, the study impacts many of our veterans. They are also in touch with us, wondering about the status of the report and the action of the report. Since our report was submitted, we’ve also heard from other key medical people and key contributors. We probably need to take a collective look at those communications. What will we do with them, if anything? What can we be doing through the Senate or the minister to make sure our report and our recommendations are diligently being seen and thought about and moved forward? That was the only thing I wanted to say as a connector before we actually look at our next potential studies. There are a number of them.
The Chair: I’m very much a procedure-driven person, so I want to make sure I don’t overstep.
Thank you for that because we know the report itself must still continue to move forward. We certainly don’t want to see studies get dropped, especially the last one. We want them to be addressed. What you’re talking about is extremely important. Is this something you’d like to add to the agenda for a future meeting? Would you like to do it in camera? This might be good for an in camera meeting. Any thoughts on that?
Senator M. Deacon: Thank you for the question. It may not be a long item, but I’d like to have it considered for the agenda for another meeting.
The in camera question is appropriate as long as we have a vehicle by which to be accountable. The folks who are impacted by this want to know in some way that we’re still on it.
The Chair: Absolutely. That’s worth it.
Thank you for the suggestion of putting it on the agenda so it is public and people can listen in. If there are any other administrative details, we can follow them up on the in camera session.
One more check: Is there any desire to talk about the proposals on the table for future business or future looks, just to orient our new senators? If there is no desire to go there, we can adjourn the meeting now.
Hon. Senators: No.
The Chair: Thank you, senators. This concludes the discussion points for today.
(The committee adjourned.)