I’m honoured to be able to stand in this place, in the Ontario Legislature, and to be able to honour our veterans, as we do each and every year, and, now, to have another opportunity I think just makes it that much greater.

I wanted to take this time to really bring the voices of some of my local veterans and folks who work with veterans in my community to the legislative floor today because, as we know, there are definitely serious concerns with veterans’ time and life after war, after serving, the struggles they face, the lack of services that are available to them and the thoughts and ideas that they think would benefit the communities. These ones specifically I know are big volunteers in the community that spend a lot of time with other veterans that work with many organizations locally to support veterans. So, today, I would like to raise their voices and thank them for allowing me the privilege and honour of sharing their voices with all of you today.

Sean states that more municipalities police forces need to adopt the Military Veterans Wellness Program that was started by Aaron Dale of the Toronto Police Service—he said that was definitely something that would help veterans within the police force—and help veterans and families that are transitioning from service to securing a family doctor because there is no road for them to be able to get a family doctor.

We know currently in the province of Ontario that thousands of people are going without a family doctor and so they are asking for a streamline to a family doctor. They need the family doctor to be able to fill out VAC paperwork that requires doctors’ reports and also to get into specific clinics, like the operational stress injury clinics in London or in Toronto. They need family doctors to be able to access those services to help them on their journey to wellness after seeing some of the most horrific situations and scenarios that anyone could possibly imagine. Provincial mental health services have to be a priority for veterans and their families, as well as housing.

Thank you, Sean, for sending me that that.

Lino DiJulio is the founder of the Ruck to Remember. The Ruck to Remember travels across the province to raise awareness and raise funds for other veterans’ groups, and these were his thoughts:

“MAID services available for veterans with only mental health diagnosis is really being received poorly and veterans are concerned that this will result in a spike in veteran suicide that will go unreported. From experience, it’s hard enough counselling a friend that is seriously considering suicide. This would make it even more difficult.”

Another one was: “There’s a lot of good results emerging from PTSD treatment using ketamine. If we’re looking for alternative ways to treat mental health, particularly in veterans and first responders, spending some time and resources in this direction is likely a winning solution.”

Third: “We need to find a way to proactively identify veterans on the streets. Whether that means outreach run by VAC”—which of course is Veterans Affairs—“in combination with calling shelters or some other method. Then get those people in touch with the many resources available and off the streets ASAP. It’s an embarrassment that we have people that served that will be watching us celebrate Remembrance Day from their home because their home is an alley with a good view of the cenotaph.”

The last one he shared with me: “Recognizing the Military Veterans Wellness Program launched by the Toronto police”—we also heard from Sean that this would be a good one. It’s a “tool that was conceived by two police officers (Aaron Dale and Jeremy Brown) that also served in the CAF, that will help equip police services around the country to deal with vets in crisis.” Some great stuff there—thank you, Lino.

Matt shared his story. He says that he goes and he does his best to speak to schools, and this is his quote: “One year, I spoke to St. Thomas More high school students in Hamilton. I shared how I wasn’t from a military family, so for my whole life I found myself going through the motions of Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day 2008, I was in Afghanistan and we had been called out to disarm a roadside bomb in downtown Kandahar city. When we got back, we were told to clean up and get ready for the camp’s Remembrance Day ceremony. I had complained, saying, wasn’t being in war enough? That’s when my mentor, Corporal Tom Hamilton, reminded me I’m new in the army, but some day this day will mean a lot more to me.

“December 13, 2008, we were called out to disarm another roadside bomb. Unfortunately, this morning, one of our vehicles would hit a roadside bomb. When I had gotten out of my vehicle to go to work on the injured, I came to see one of the bodies was Corporal Tom Hamilton, and he was deceased.

“I finished my speech with the students at St. Thomas More saying that if they were someone going through the motions of Remembrance Day, they now had a fallen soldier they can think of to remember.”

Thank you, Matt, for sharing that with us.

This is from Phil Howie. Phil is the president of the Green Knights motorcycle chapter number 71 in Hamilton. These guys are literally a motorcycle club. They’re veterans, and they wear green. They’ve chosen green because green represented the old green-style uniform that our services had worn in the past. They do exemplary work throughout the community. They’re chapter number 71. They were formed in 2018. They’re a not-for-profit. They’re growing in a positive way with members and supporters. They support multiple charities and give big donations to veterans and first responders, but they also support causes for homelessness, autism, bullying and brain cancer. They have 20 members and many chapters around the world. Some of the groups that they support are Helping Heroes Heal; Corporal4Life; Cracked Armour; Mad Hatter; Ruck for the Homeless; Ruck 2 Remember; Bush Wookie; woundedwarriors.ca; Veterans and Everyday Heroes; Tactical Canuck Battle Group; Chedder Charlie; Boots on the Ground; and CannaConnect. Those are some of the amazing organizations locally that the Green Knights support and fundraise for on a regular basis.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet many of these local veterans and many more through the process of working on a Homes for Heroes project in the city of Hamilton. I spoke to the previous minister of housing, and he was very willing to have that program come to Hamilton due to the high numbers of homeless veterans on our community streets. Now, this was last year, and at that time—I think the numbers were even a little old at that time—we had 97 identified veterans just in Hamilton alone, and in the Hamilton surrounding area, we had over 300. You heard from Lino that having a program to actually track more veterans was really important, but the Homes for Heroes project would be able to serve that need.

Homes for Heroes began in Alberta, in Calgary. We have a Homes for Heroes in Kingston that is new, and I’m not sure how far it is in. I have to get an update on that because I’m quite excited about it. We really, truly need that Homes for Heroes in Hamilton. The unfortunate part is that we need land. We need an acre of land to be able to fit that need. There was a property that I thought was a perfect fit; it was ministry-zoned and, I believe, was in the middle of a purchase for long-term care, but it’s 9.3 hectares of land—