When it comes to the Canada Pension Plan, they are intertwined, whether you receive it normally at 60 or 65 or whether you receive it as a CPP disability.
One of the frustrating things when you watch a military or RCMP individual who is medically released.... We're not even talking about the SISIP plan, which is outrageous in itself, that we charge the military for an insurance plan and then deduct it from them. At this committee, two DND ombudsmen and the last witness from the legion said that this money should be put back into that SISIP plan to look after those members. That's separate from this.
But you tell a military or RCMP person who, after over twenty-something years, is disabled out of the military or RCMP to go and apply for Canada Pension disability. That's not just picking up the phone and saying, “Hi. I need CPP disability.” It's quite an arduous, brain-melting task to do that. You have to do a Cirque du Soleil act to get that. Eventually if you do get it, the government says, “Sorry. Yes, you'll get it, but it's deducted from your annuity.”
So the first question they ask you is why in hell they bothered applying for this in the first place. It's a question I can't answer. They're very frustrated by that. People who are disabled should never, in my opinion, have a deduction in any way, shape, or form. I don't care what they put into a plan; they're disabled, for God's sake. Don't look at them as a cash cow to reduce that benefit. Have some humanity in this discussion and look after these people for the rest of their natural lives. It's the least they deserve.