Ombudsman positive on progress made on recommendations for medically released members

Message from the Ombudsman | 8 December 2022

Today I am providing you with my third and final update for this year’s progress reports.

In 2016, my office published a systemic investigation entitled Simplifying the Service Delivery Model for Medically Releasing Members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

In this investigation, we found that medically released Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members did not always receive timely access to the services and benefits they needed.

I am pleased that the Department of National Defence (DND) and the CAF progressed in some aspects of the transition process. For instance, they established the CAF Transition Group in 2019 and now retain medically released members until their application for benefits and services is submitted. Additionally, the DND and CAF have ensured that relevant information for medically released members is available to the public on the Military career transition web page.

Although the DND and the CAF made noticeable progress, our report recommended that medically released members be retained until the benefits and services are completed. To date, they have not created a secure web portal or a concierge service to help members navigate a complex system. However, they are working on variations of the military to civilian transition process to support members with more complex transition needs. This support is not standardized at this time as they continue to develop the new transition processes for all members.

Therefore, my progress report results in two partially implemented recommendations and one recommendation not implemented.

As part of our mandate, we work to ensure the DND and the CAF treat our constituents fairly. Therefore, we will continue to monitor the progress made by the DND and the CAF to fully implement all our recommendations, which will ensure long-lasting improvements for medically released members.

This is my final progress report for 2022–2023. I invite you to review the progress reports themselves for more details on the status of each recommendation.

Gregory A. Lick
Ombudsman