Veterans Charter leaves some vets in poverty once they retire; report

OTTAWA – Veterans ombudsman Guy Parent says it’s hard to believe the federal government is willing to improve the veterans charter after years of inaction.

A report released by the ombudsman today says government compensation for veterans’ pain and suffering is insufficient.

The report also says hundreds of severely disabled veterans will take a financial hit once they retire because some of their benefits will end and they don’t have military pensions.

Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino has said the government will support a House of Commons committee as it looks at how changes to the charter enacted in 2011 have affected those benefits.

But Parent says changes need to be made quickly.

And he says his office and veterans organizations need to force politicians to keep their promises to fix a broken system.

“We have been working on the veterans charter improvements for many years and so have many other veterans representative groups,” Parent told a news conference.

“What is important here is to hold the parliamentarians to their promise when they first introduced it, that there will be continuous improvement,” he added.

“And it’s very hard to believe (Fantino’s statements) when in fact for six years there was nothing done about the charter.”

The ombudsman’s office carried out a detailed comparison of benefits and entitlements under the new veterans charter and those from the old pension-for-life system used since the end of the First World War.

The Conservatives overhauled the veterans charter in 2011 following complaints that it was nowhere near as generous as the old system. Those enhancements, which included more money to replace lost income, will be reviewed by MPs this fall.