'It's hurting people': Veterans Affairs union says caseload promise taking too long
Laura Chapin | CBC News | Posted: October 18, 2016 9:00 PM | Last Updated: October 18, 2016
Head of national union says it's taking too long to get caseloads down
The head of the national union representing workers at Veterans Affairs says the department's promise to get caseloads down is taking too long.
Carl Gannon, president of the Union of Veterans Employees, presented his concerns Tuesday afternoon to the parliamentary standing committee for Veterans Affairs in Ottawa.
"Some places in Canada right now are still running at 45 to one, and it's dangerous. It's hurting people right now, because it looks like our capabilities as a department are bigger and stronger than they actually are," Gannon told CBC News.
One in five service locations high numbers
Veterans Affairs confirms that about six of its 28 service locations across the country have caseload averages of 40 to 45 per caseload manager, most of them in Western Canada.
But Michel Doiron, the assistant deputy minister of service delivery with Veterans Affairs, told CBC News nationally the average is 30 to one, and he hopes to get that down to 25 in a year from now.
"I have offices across the country that are presently running at 25 to one, but we also have other offices that we've had more of a challenge to recruit, and we're running at higher numbers," said Doiron.
"All I can say is we've already hired 300 new employees, adding to direct service delivery across the country."
Dorion said the money for those new employees only became available in July, and it usually takes a new employee about six months to be carrying a full caseload. He said another 100 employees will also be hired.
Doiron said Veterans Affairs made the commitment to reduce the number of cases handled by employees because of the increased complexity of the challenges many of the new veterans are facing, including a rising number of mental health issues.
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