More about Public Consultation

Mandate of the Ombudsman

The Veterans' Ombudsman has been tasked with ensuring fair treatment of the Veterans' community and to uphold the rights of Veterans as outlined in the Veterans Bill of Rights. In this role the Office of the Ombudsman has been actively reviewing, analysing and investigating complaints to identify systemic problems and emerging issues regarding Veterans Affairs Canada's programs, services and benefits.

To provide an objective viewpoint of any issue, all sides of an issue need to be considered. So in addition to educating individuals on the various issues affecting the Veterans' community, it is the Ombudsman's intent to provide complete transparency into the activities the Office is working on and to provide an opportunity for our stakeholders to actually contribute and shape some of those activities.

Notification Statement

This Public Consultation site has been made available to inform the public about what issues the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman has currently identified and is working on. For each issue some questions have been identified for consideration. This site will provide you the opportunity to review the ongoing development of these issues and allow for your input. Your input will help the Ombudsman provide a balanced and objective review of the issue.

Your feedback on the key issues will be posted for viewing, subject to the moderation criteria outlined below, and will be considered in the overall research and analysis of a particular issue, which in turn, could lead to improvements in the delivery of Veterans' benefits.

The Office of the Veterans Ombudsman (OVO) cannot accept requests to investigate individual complaints through the Public Consultation site. However, you can submit a complaint by telephone, mail or fax, or you can file your complaint securely online by following the steps outlined on this Web site.

Privacy Notice

The only identifiable information collected by this Web site is information you give voluntarily and will be treated as confidential.

The information you provide on the Public Consultation site is collected under the authority of the Veterans Ombudsman Order-in-Council JUS-609755 and is collected for the purpose of facilitating input and discussion surrounding issues identified by the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman.

Please note that personal information collected on this Web site is for the purpose of allowing the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman to contact you, if required, in regards to your inadmissible posting or to investigate further points presented in your submission.

Information that is deemed personal is protected from unauthorized disclosure by the Privacy Act. The Privacy Act provides individuals with a right to access their own personal information which is under the control of the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman. The Privacy Act also affords individuals the right to challenge the accuracy and completeness of their personal information and have it amended as appropriate. Any final report or posting of the submission on the Web site will not contain personally identifiable information.

For further information on this privacy notice please contact the Access to Information and Privacy Coordinator's Office, Veterans Affairs Canada, P.O. Box 7700, Charlottetown, PE, C1A 8M9, please quote Personal Information Bank No. VAC PPU 210.

Moderation

Your comments will be reviewed by the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman prior to posting to the Web site.

To protect your own privacy and the privacy of others, please do not include personal information in your comments. The term "personal information" means information about an identifiable individual that is recorded in any form. It may include but is not limited to: name, address, email address, race, ethnic origin, medical and employment history, and identifying numbers. Note as well that the views or opinions expressed about another individual are considered personal information about and belonging to that individual.

It is not the Ombudsman's intent to censor input, however the following rules must be met for comments to be posted. The Ombudsman reserves the right to refuse to post comments that do not comply with the following:

Use site for intended purpose. No one is permitted to use this site to advertise for sale any good or service, or to make announcements from labour, political or service organizations, or for any purpose that will not add to the flow of the discussion. It is also prohibited to deliberately disturb any discussion with repetitive or unfounded messages, or for spamming purposes.

Be respectful. The Ombudsman encourages lively discussion and debate on this site. Open discussion may give rise to many different opinions and people will often disagree. Personal attacks are a breach of the Ombudsman's conditions for posting. Any comments which may infringe upon other persons' rights to participate in this public consultation site are also prohibited.

Be courteous and use polite language. The Office of the Veterans Ombudsman cannot tolerate comments that are offensive to an individual or an organization, are rude in tone or abusive. Comments that are defamatory, obscene, pornographic, racist, sexist, slanderous, insulting, or threatening will not be posted.

The OVO may contact you should your comments include any of the above and they will not be posted. It will be up to you to make the appropriate changes and resubmit your comments.

Your Submission

By using this site, you acknowledge having read and understood the conditions of use and, accordingly, you agree to abide by them as well as any future modifications which may be made. These conditions of use represent an agreement between you and the Office of the Ombudsman.

The Office has limited the size of the submission to 5000 characters as a means to help focus an individual's submission and to help the Office potentially manage the volume of submissions. Obviously, in some circumstances you may have a number of references you may want to include or due to the complexity of the issue you are describing this limit is not sufficient for your needs. In those circumstances you can e-mail your submission to us at identifying the question for which you are submitting this information. Unless there is an overwhelming response to a particular question, the Office's goal is to have your submission posted within 2 working days of receiving it. Your submission will be posted in the language that you sent it.

Accountability and Retention of Information

The information on the Web site, including the responses posted, will be archived on the Veterans Ombudsman's Web site after the consultation period.

Time lines

Normally once a consultation is posted; it will be accessible for comments for at least 60 days. Each issue being consulted on will have dates published as to when will be the last day for comments to be received. Depending on the complexity of the issue it will take a minimum of 30 days to publish a final report (if required). If a report is going to be published the Minister can have up to a maximum of 60 days before the report has to be released. On average it will likely take five to six months from the time the Office receives your comment, until the formal report is released to the public.

Note that not every issue being consulted will require a formal published report. The Office may find that the issue being consulted is not negatively affecting veterans and may decide to discontinue the consultation. The Office may also find the issue or certain aspects of an issue so compelling that we actively engage Veterans Affairs Canada using existing work processes to resolve the situation.

Public Consultation Topics and Topics Being Considered

The Office will be posting on a regular basis a number of systemic and emerging issues for Public Consultation. In addition to the questions that will be asked, research material will also be published or linked to, so that the reader is as informed as possible.

In addition, the Office has also listed a number of topics currently being considered. The list of topics being considered for future consultation will not have the same level of detail as those that are posted for Public Consultation; they show what questions the Office feels need to be answered to ensure a common level of knowledge is presented and the research is objective and thorough. The intent is also to allow the opportunity for individuals to contribute to the scoping or prioritization of the investigation of these issues before the topic is posted on the Public Consultation section of the Web site.

Contact Information

If you have any problems with accessing the site or posting a submission, you can contact us.