OTTAWA – Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney is standing firm in the face of mounting criticism over the number of impoverished ex-soldiers whose families have been turned away from a federal burial fund.

The Last Post Fund, an independent agency that administers a federal funeral and grave-marker program for poor veterans, has rejected 67 per cent of the applications put before it since 2006.

Both the fund and Blaney’s own department have lobbied the Harper government to re-define the eligibility criteria and to increase the $3,600 stipend given to families who do qualify.

Blaney says unlike the previous Liberal government, the Conservatives have not cut the fund.

New Democrat veterans critic Peter Stoffer says the government should have improved the program and there’s no excuse, given the amount of money spent on photo-op friendly war monument restoration.

Ex-soldiers are outraged and Mike Blais, of Canadian Veterans Advocacy, says that kind of penny-pinching treatment is not what members of the military expect when they enlist and put their lives on the line.