Canada’s vets deserve much, much better

December 11, 2017

Canada’s soldiers are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for us.

At the very least, you’d think the government of Canada could in turn offer them fast and efficient public service. Apparently not.

Veterans Affairs Canada has royally screwed up at processing veterans’ disability benefits applications. As Canadian Press reported Monday: “Veterans Affairs Canada says there were about 29,000 applications for disability benefits in the queue waiting to be processed at the end of November — a nearly 50% increase since the end of March.”

This leaves all of these former Canadian Armed Forces members waiting for months to learn whether or not they’ll receive these payments.

A popular Liberal government talking point is to blame the former Conservative government for all of their problems. In this case, there would be some truth to that as the previous government did cut departmental funding.

But now is not the time for partisan political talking points.

Justin Trudeau is the PM and the Liberals are in power. We don’t want to hear the blame passed around. We don’t want to hear how two wrongs make a right. We want action and solutions.

The truth is that successive governments have failed on this file. Trudeau should avoid becoming the newest on the list. The Liberals have hired new employees at the department, now they need to make sure they get the job done.

Canadians shouldn’t hold their breath though. It seems this is not the only task at Veterans Affairs Canada plagued with managerial ineptness.

A Postmedia story by Tom Spears exposes the dreadful conditions that unraveled at an April 9 event marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

While 25,000 Canadians were in France to pay tribute to the battle that’s said to have made our nation, they were lucky if they heard the service. They were lucky if they got their hands on food. Or a bathroom. Or shade.

Spears sourced the hundreds of pages of complaint letters the department received from Canadians attending the event, one that saw elderly people stranded for hours, hungry and tired, some even suffering heatstroke due to poor event management.

These stories are unacceptable. Canada’s veterans deserve much, much better.

http://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-canadas-vets-deserve-much-much-better