March Update from Peter Stoffer

An update from Peter Stoffer, MP, Sackville-Eastern Shore, Official Opposition Critic for Veterans Affairs

TIME FOR GOVERNMENT TO IMPROVE VETERANS’ FUNERAL

AND BURIAL BENEFITS

FALL RIVER, N.S – Peter Stoffer, Official Opposition Critic for Veterans Affairs will hold a press conference March 22, 2012 on the need for the Conservative government to increase funding to the Last Post Fund which provides funeral and burial assistance to veterans’ and their families. 

Peter will be joined by Bill Mont, President of the Pleasant Hill Cemetery, who wishes to offer a substantial discount on burial plots to veterans and CF personnel and their families to help address the major gap in federal government assistance.

FRIDAY MARCH 22, 2013                                                                            FALL RIVER

1:00 PM             Stoffer Press Conference

Office of Peter Stoffer, MP  2900 Hwy # 2 Fall River, NS

For more information, please contact:

Holly Brown, Office of Peter Stoffer: 902-861-2311 or stoffp1@parl.gc.ca

Sitting down on the job

Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney (Feb. 6) claims that his government is "Standing up for veterans." I think it is fair to say that this Conservative government has actually sat down on many veterans' issues.

Take, for example, the SISIP class-action lawsuit. This government spent six years and $150 million fighting these disabled veterans in court. The government now intends to fight RCMP veterans in court over a similar issue.

The government has cut $246 million from the Veterans Affairs budget, will eliminate 2,100 staff and close nine district offices by 2014.

For the veterans' funeral and burial program, more than 20,000 applications were rejected, a refusal rate of about two-thirds. Eligible families only receive up to $3,600 for funeral costs, and the Conservative government has made no funding increases since 2001.

With respect to the Veterans Independence Program, many spouses of deceased veterans still do not have access to this program, even though Stephen Harper promised in 2005 to "extend VIP services to widows of all Second World War and Korean veterans." Mr. Blaney should give Joyce Carter of St. Peter's a call about this.

It's time for our federal government to do much more for veterans and their families.

By: Peter Stoffer, MP, Sackville-Eastern Shore, Official Opposition Critic for Veterans Affairs

Introduced Legislation (Private Members Bill): Equal Treatment for Canada’s Fallen Soldiers

On February 11th, I introduced Bill C-472, an Act to amend the New Veterans Charter to ensure that death benefits are extended to parents of single soldiers. All men and women in the service, regardless of marital status, should be extended the option for death benefits, in case of death in service to our country. There should be equal treatment for Canada’s fallen soldiers.

I first raised this issue back in 2006 and asked the Minister of Veterans Affairs to quickly fix this situation. A number of parents who had lost sons or daughters in service to their country discovered they were not eligible for the death benefit, as only spouses or common-law partners of fallen soldiers are eligible for this lump-sum payment of $250,000.

Since that time, this Conservative government has taken no action of this file. A complaint by one of the affected families led to the case being referred to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal as the family argued that the death benefit discriminates against single soldiers on the ground of family status. Unfortunately, the Tribunal did not provide a final ruling and the issue remains unresolved. (The Tribunal was about to rule on this case in 2011 when the Department of Veterans Affairs made a last minute offer to recognize this soldier’s former girlfriend as his common-law spouse – a benefit they had previously denied. This meant that technically, the soldier was no longer single and the case was dismissed).

I urge the federal government to take action on this file and adopt my bill in the interest of fairness for all veterans and their families.

Veterans’ Long-Term Care

New Democrats are advocating that the federal government continue the veterans’ long-term care program. Currently, World War II and Korean veterans are eligible for dedicated departmental contract beds, or priority beds, in veterans’ hospital wings (like Parkwood Hospital in London, Ontario; Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Ontario; Camp Hill in Halifax, N.S.) or approved provincial community care facilities, if they meet certain criteria. This program will cease when the last World War II or Korean War veteran passes away and the Conservative government has no intention to open access up to CF and RCMP veterans. This means that veterans will no longer have priority access to departmental contract beds and will compete with the civilian population for access to long-term care in provincial community care facilities. (Modern-day veterans that have a service-related injury that necessitates long-term care will be eligible for a community bed but this criteria is very restrictive and we expect very few modern-day veterans will have access.) New Democrats continue to advocate that the federal government has a responsibility for long-term care for veterans, in recognition of those who accept the condition of unlimited liability. We propose that veterans have access to veterans’ hospitals/wards throughout Canada staffed with health care professionals experienced in the dedicated and exclusive treatment of injured veterans.

My colleague Irene Mathyssen asked this question in the House on February 11th:

Irene Mathyssen London—Fanshawe, ON

Mr. Speaker, after promising Colonel Neil Russell, a 33-year veteran with the air force, a long-term care bed in Parkwood Hospital, Veterans Affairs is now backtracking. Colonel Russell will have to pay the province for the bed.

This is a betrayal of the men and the women who have served our country. Veterans are not a provincial responsibility. When will Veterans Affairs Canada stop this demeaning and adversarial process and take care of all of our veterans?

Steven Blaney Minister of Veterans Affairs

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to confirm to the hon. member that we take care of all veterans, and especially those who have an injury that requires long-term care. That is why we are providing them with our community beds throughout the country, where they want and as they want it.

I invite the NDP member to support our initiative. We are seeking their support. We are investing as much as we can for veterans. We would like to have their support once in a while.

Call for Increase to Veterans Funeral and Burial Benefits

New Democrats continue to advocate for an increase in funding for the veterans’ burial and funeral program. We also advocate that the program be expanded so that modern-day CF and RCMP veterans and their families could receive funeral and burial assistance. Unfortunately, the Conservative government continues to ignore calls to increase the funding for this program even though calls have come from the Vetearns Ombudsman, the Royal Canadian Legion, other veterans organizations, my New Democrat colleagues, and many veterans and their families.

It is very unfortunate that since 2006, over 20,000 applications for funeral and burial benefits were rejected – a refusal rate of approximately two-thirds. Families who are eligible for this program receive only $3,600 to cover their costs - an amount woefully inadequate to assist with today’s costs for funeral and burial services.

We will continue to advocate for fairer benefits for CF and RCMP veterans and their families, including improvements to this program.

Last week, my colleague, Sylvain Chicoine (Deputy Critic for Veterans Affairs) asked this question in the House about the veterans’ funeral and burial program.

Debate Feb 7, 2013 6:15 pm

Sylvain Chicoine Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC

Mr. Speaker, this adjournment debate this evening relates to a question I put to the Minister of Veterans Affairs on October 25 and to which I did not get any response.

To give a bit of context, at the time I said that the government, through the funeral and burial program, was providing only $3,600 to cover the funeral expenses incurred by a veteran in need, while the actual cost of a decent funeral is at least $7,000, if not $8,000.

In the days that followed, specifically on November 5 and 6, several of my colleagues put questions to the minister but did not get any response.

We asked why, since taking office, the government had not increased funding for funeral and burial costs for our veterans, despite being aware of this issue since 2009.

Of course, the minister gave a stock reply that did not at all answer the question. The only answer provided was that he would not cut into the veterans' programs, like the Liberals had done before. Of course, that was not my question. I did not ask whether he would make cuts to the programs, but whether he was going to increase funding for this funeral and burial program.

So, I hope to get that answer today. I am looking forward to hearing the parliamentary secretary tell us whether the government intends to increase funding for this funeral program in the 2013 budget or, at the very least, during the review of the new veterans charter.

I also think it is important that the minister and the parliamentary secretary take a closer look at the Patrick Strogan report, which was tabled in February 2009 and which focused precisely on this funeral fund program. What have they done since? Absolutely nothing.

In his report entitled “Serve with Honour, Depart with Dignity”, the veterans ombudsman, Patrick Strogan, mentioned seven major concerns. Among other things, he feels that the funding is lower than the costs, that the program has too much red tape and that it should be offered to all veterans, and not just to a single class of the poorest veterans.

In its study on the commemoration of the 21st century, the committee made the same recommendation, namely that the program be improved. At the time, before October 25, the Funeral Service Association of Canada sounded the alarm. It confirmed that funding for the program was well below funeral costs. That funding has not been adjusted since 2001, while costs have increased significantly since.

The association even said that its members provide funeral services at a lower cost to veterans than to the general public. Those businesses are partially funding funerals for deceased veterans because they feel it is important that veterans have a burial that is worthy of their sacrifice. I thank them for their commitment to our veterans. We are asking the government to have the same level of commitment and to improve the program to cover all funeral costs, as it should.

Eligibility also seems to be an issue. Since 2006, 67% of requests have been denied. That is an alarming percentage, and it is high time the government review its eligibility criteria. All veterans should have access to this program, no matter where and when they served. The ombudsman and the NDP feel that there should not be different classes of veterans; they should all be equal.

Using the estate or means test to assess the net worth of a veteran's estate also seems to be problematic because it restricts a veteran's access to the program. The Royal Canadian Legion stated that the government had effectively limited the ability of the Last Post Fund to meet its mandate by reducing the estate exemption from $24,000 to $12,000. That happened under the Liberal government, but the Conservative government has done nothing to change the situation since 2006.

I will ask the government again. Will it make improvements to this program in the 2013 budget, and will it change the eligibility criteria for the program?

For the full exchange, please see www.parl.gc.ca, February 7th debates.