Veterans Affairs Dep’t Has No Figures on Number of Veterans Hired

A Canadian flag is seen on a Canadian Armed Forces member’s uniform in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Lars Hagberg)

The federal Veterans Affairs Department has no figures on the number of veterans it has hired since Parliament passed a bill in 2015 intended to increase veteran employment numbers.

“We absolutely believe in hiring veterans, not just at Veterans Affairs Canada, but across all federal departments,” said Steven Harris, assistant deputy minister of service delivery at Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC).

Harris was testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs on Jan. 30. The committee is studying a national strategy for veterans’ employment after service.

“We don’t have a specific target for hiring veterans, but we always make recruitment efforts to ensure they can join us,” he told MPs, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Conservative MP Blake Richards asked Harris if his department tracks the “overall number of employees at Veterans Affairs who were veterans themselves.”

“I don’t have a specific number for you at this point in time,” Harris replied. “We do collect the information with respect to veterans who are part of the department.”

Harris added that the department only collects such information from its employees if they volunteer to provide it.

“So it would not be a comprehensive number I would be able to give you, as some people choose to declare their past military service and some don’t,” Harris said.

Hiring Veterans

Parliament in 2015 passed Bill C-27, also called the “Veterans Hiring Act,” which was meant to increase “hiring opportunities for certain serving and former members of the Canadian Forces.”

The bill mandated that federal hiring preferences be given to ex-military members who had been honourably discharged for “medical reasons due to service.”

Harris told the committee that an average of 8,500 members of the Canadian Armed Forces retire each year, out of which between 4,000 and 4,500 seek second careers.

“We know that very few veterans become employees of Veterans Affairs Canada after their service,” said Bloc Québécois MP Luc Desilets. “That is something that veterans lament.”

“You want to implement a strategy. Have you clearly established goals? Will it be quantifiable? What will it take to determine if this strategy was a success?” Desilets asked Harris.

Harris said the department has not yet reached its “final strategy,” but is still in the “development stage.”

“We will be gathering all of the information and feedback that we have received,” Harris told the committee, adding that his department still prioritizes hiring veterans above others.

“We'll talk more about how it’s been prioritized in the federal government as well. We continue to recruit folks from past military life and service in order to add their expertise to the work that we do, including in the employment unit.”