Veterans Affairs

This House of Commons committee meeting studied the experience of Black veterans and the rehabilitation services provided by the PCVRS program. Appearing were Natalie Forcier and Joel Peddle, both veterans speaking as individuals; Aaron Slingerland, Executive Director at The Ottawa Hospital; and Lieutenant-Commander Esrom Tesfamichael, speaking as an individual.

Natalie Forcier, a former medic, testified that the PCVRS program was not collaborative as promised, that she received only one tangible rehab plan, and that she felt pressured to show measurable improvement within a set timeline or risk losing her Income Replacement Benefit (IRB). She argued that maintenance and slowing deterioration should count as success for chronic injuries, and that veterans need real choice in providers, as being forced to leave a trusted therapist can be destabilizing.

Joel Peddle, who runs a veteran support Q&A on Reddit, said there is zero trust in the veteran community toward VAC and PCVRS, with veterans fearing that non-compliance will lead to loss of benefits. He stated that PCVRS agents use threats to force veterans to abandon their health care teams for Lifemark-approved providers, that there is no system to lodge complaints about PCVRS, and that veterans should have agency over their own care.

Aaron Slingerland confirmed that The Ottawa Hospital entered an affiliate agreement with Lifemark in March 2025 to provide complex mental health assessments for veterans, currently seeing one patient per week at a fee of about $5,800 per assessment. He agreed that an independent review of the PCVRS program is warranted given the spending and veteran concerns, and said that outcome measures should be co-designed with participants.

Lieutenant-Commander Esrom Tesfamichael, a naval reservist and policy adviser, testified that the Black experience in the CAF is diverse but shaped by systemic anti-Black racism, and that focusing on outcomes like representation can miss the need to fix underlying systems. He recommended explicitly recognizing race-based trauma in mental health support and creating guardrails at vulnerable decision points to protect against racism, adding that while progress has been made, there is still room to improve.

During questioning, Forcier stated she was never threatened by VAC before PCVRS took over, and Peddle noted that his own experience was positive but that he speaks for the many veterans who face threats and administrative burdens. Slingerland confirmed that veterans are not automatically given their assessment reports unless they request them. Tesfamichael said he could not speak to how VAC is failing Black veterans but emphasized the importance of addressing systemic patterns and racial trauma.