Hon. Duncan Wilson: Minister, welcome. I’m so pleased to see a minister from the beautiful province of British Columbia, particularly one who represents one of the country’s most important port complexes, given the amount of Canada’s international trade that goes through your riding.

My first question is on an issue that I believe is near and dear to the hearts of all Canadians, the matter of ensuring that veterans are able to pursue meaningful post-service careers. This issue is one that your party had prioritized in its platform commitments to veterans and seems to be an issue that your government appears to be seized with. I think we would all agree on the critical importance of ensuring that our veterans go on to having fulfilling careers once their active service has come to an end.

Given this, can you please elaborate on your work around this issue and what evolution we should expect to the government’s strategy in the near and medium term?

Hon. Jill McKnight, P.C., M.P., Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence: Thank you very much, senator. This is something that is incredibly close to my heart, coming from a business background and knowing the importance of creating meaningful opportunities for veterans in their post-service civilian life. Canadian Armed Forces members who are transitioning to civilian life have an incredibly broad and extensive set of skills and experiences that they can bring into the workforce.

In 2024 Canada launched its first National Veterans Employment Strategy with the goal of connecting the skills that veterans have with the opportunities that are out there. The strategy is going to focus on expanding employment supports, recognizing veteran-ready employers and strengthening our public service hiring of veterans who have these incredible skills.

We are very committed to moving that forward and being able to bring these opportunities to our veterans because we know that the sense of community that can come in one way from employment is a great way to support our veterans.

Senator Wilson: Thank you. As a quick follow-up, minister, I know you bring a personal passion for entrepreneurship, having been an entrepreneur yourself and having had extensive engagement with the B.C. chambers of commerce and the chambers of commerce movement.

In the course of your continued learning about this file and the challenges that veterans face, have you had the occasion to meet with veteran entrepreneurs?

Ms. McKnight: Thank you. Yes, entrepreneurship is another part of our National Veterans Employment Strategy. I have had a couple of really amazing engagements with some veterans. I would love to share one with you.

Earlier this year, when I was in Atlantic Canada, I had the opportunity to meet a father and son veteran combo who own two different businesses in the area, and through this conversation I realized how much of their skills that they had translated over. One of the skills that might not have landed if you were to look at their formal job description in the CAF was project management, and yet that’s very much what they are doing every single day in their roles.