Canadaâs veterans ombudsman says current legislation is failing some of the most severely wounded and disabled soldiers and the government must address its âurgent shortcomings.â
On Tuesday, Guy Parent comparing the New Veterans Charter enacted in 2006, with the old system of compensating veterans under the Pension Act.
The report highlights serious issues with the level of financial support given to veterans, especially those who were permanently disabled in combat.
The report found that hundreds of the most severely disabled veterans will take a financial hit after they turn 65 because they do not have military pensions and some of their charter benefits will end.
More than half of veterans who are assessed as âtotally and permanently incapacitatedâ and canât find work are not awarded impairment benefits.
âIt is simply not acceptable to let veterans who have sacrificed the most for their countryâŚlive their lives with unmet financial needs,â the report says.
Benefits that are supposed to help veterans transition from a military to a civilian career, as well as compensation for pain and suffering, are also inadequate, the report found.
In Parentâs view, the legislation needs improvement in three key areas: financial, vocational rehabilitation and family support.
âWe either deal with these issues now or we are going to have to deal with the cost later,â he said at a news conference in Ottawa.
Later Tuesday, Parent told CTVâs Power Play that among its many recommendations, his report proposes options to bring a veteranâs income to about 70 per cent of his or her pre-release salary, which is the general standard for most Canadians.
Parent noted that injured veterans âare no longer employable because they are not deployable,â and when they leave the forces they miss out on career advancement opportunities, as well as the ability to plan for their futures.
âWhat weâre saying is that, in fact, because there was a loss of opportunity to prepare for their retirement years, that there is a debt owed to them by the government to ensure that that is compensated for,â Parent said. âSo weâre not asking for more, weâre asking for at least the same opportunity.â
The Royal Canadian Legion said it has been raising the same issues for years and will âactivelyâ push the government to immediately make changes to the veterans charter.
The Conservative government overhauled the charter in 2011 to include more money for lost income replacements. Those changes will undergo a legislated review by a parliamentary committee this fall.
Last week, Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino announced that the government will launch a âcomprehensiveâ parliamentary review of the New Veterans Charter, which will look at the entire legislation.
In response to Parentâs report Tuesday, Fantino issued a statement saying the government is âcommitted to taking a responsible approach in reviewing the options to ensure veterans have the support they need, when they need it.â
Fantinoâs office said that âa number of improvementsâ have been made to the veterans charter since 2006, including reduced wait times for services and the âHire a Veteranâ program.
Parent told Power Play that the charter âdoesnât need to be reviewed again.â
âAll of the pillars have been identified, so whoever is doing the review and however it proceeds should take into consideration that that has already been done and some of our recommendations were already contained in other reports that have been produced over the years,â he said. âReview is enough. Itâs time for action.â
Veterans advocate Sean Bruyea said that in his view, âa bureaucrat who never served in uniformâ will decide what a veteran needs.
âWhatâs not happening, and what needs to happen, is we need Parliamentarians to get out of Parliament, to get down from the Hill and go to communities big and small, meet with veterans, meet with family members, ask them what they need,â Bruyea told Power Play.
He said that ultimately, soldiers face risks that civilians do not and their compensation should reflect that.
âThereâs no other legal organization in this country that can order people into a situation where they know there will be loss of life. Everything is done in all other equivalent civilian organizations to avoid loss of life,â Bruyea said.
âThey have to be willing to not think about themselves, not think about their families, and be willing to lose their life for Canadians. So thatâs why Canadians have a debt repayment to these people, because theyâve given so much.â
The New Democrats called on the Conservative government Tuesday to âimmediately fix the pressing problemsâ outlined in Parentâs report.
âThe government could easily fix many of these problems, for example by removing age 65 restriction on pension eligibility to give the veterans and their families the dignity they deserve,â NDPâs veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer said in a statement.
Liberal veteran affairs critic Jim Karygiannis told CTVNews.ca that a charter review is âlong overdueâ and that he welcomes the ombudsmanâs report and comments.
âIâm looking forward to working with the committee in order for us to come up with solutions to the problems that Iâve been hearing from a lot of veterans,â he said.
With files from Andrea Janus