Veterans Affairs needs help, not cuts: critics

The NDP and several veterans groups are lashing out at the Conservative government over reports it is considering cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

NDP veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer said there are hundreds of thousands of modern-day Canadian Forces and RCMP veterans and their spouses who need support, but are not eligible to receive assistance from the department.

There are currently just over 150,000 living veterans of the Second World War and Korean War. 

Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn was quoted in an interview last week as saying his department will have to shrink as about 1,700 elderly war veterans are dying each month.

But Stoffer accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government of trying to find a "back-door" way to unload costs for veterans' care to the provinces by cutting staff at DVA locations.

"For the minister to say we have less veterans than before, it's simply wrong," he told reporters at a news conference on Monday in Ottawa alongside representatives from veterans groups, including Korean War veterans, RCMP veterans, and men and women currently deployed in the war in Afghanistan.

Ron Allaire, who fought in the Korean War, said his comrades are looking for a "champion" within the government to take up their cause after hearing the horror stories in dealing with the department, especially from the "phenomenal generation" of Second World War veterans.

"All you hear is, 'Well, I'm fighting DVA on such and such,'" Allaire told reporters. ""When you hear that they're cutting back on the services for these heroes, I hang my head."

In a statement Monday evening from Normandy, France, Blackburn said he wanted to assure veterans and their families that the "rumours" they are hearing about the department "are simply not true."

He said the department has begun a "transformation that will reflect emerging trends and better serve future needs."

"In order to do this, some of our offices may expand, and in some areas, we may need to hire new employees," Blackburn said. "Our overall focus is to ensure staff are in the locations where they are most needed."

"As I have said on many occasions, Canada owes a huge debt of gratitude to all of those who have chosen to wear a uniform-to those who supported them in the past and who still stand behind them to this day. We will never renege on our promise to repay that debt."

Vets face 'maze' to get benefits

The NDP's Stoffer estimated there are currently as many as 700,000 military and RCMP veterans, as well as their families, who are eligible for services.

Meanwhile, he said, the department's staff is seeing their caseloads increase, especially the number of cases related to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Stoffer also hit out at the "mind-boggling" bureaucracy at the department, saying many aging veterans applying for disability benefits can't handle the "maze" they face.

"They find it so mind-boggling and confusing, they just give up," he said.

Blackburn told Postmedia News last Friday the government would not take sudden actions to shrink the department, but is considering a five-year plan to reduce Veterans Affairs' workforce through attrition and expected retirements.  

"I'm just saying if we have less veterans, we should have less employees too," he said.