House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2015, with 44% of the vote.
Veterans December 11th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, our government has delivered, and today there are more services, more benefits and more points of service for our veterans than ever before.
Here are the facts. The opposition voted against expanding funeral and burial funding. It voted against career transition services. It even voted against the children of deceased veterans education assistance program.
We take no lessons from a party that speaks one thing and does another.
Veterans December 9th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, our record shows that we care deeply about the welfare and well-being of our veterans and their families. Under the leadership of this Prime Minister, our government has made substantial improvements to the new veterans charter and the supports available for veterans.
The government does not comment on matters before the courts, except to say that this matter deals exclusively with something that all parties agreed to under the previous government.
Veterans December 9th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, in fact there are back office positions in almost every segment of Veterans Affairs Canada.
A few examples of the efficiencies that we have created include stopping asking veterans to show their receipts for all kinds of transactions that had to be processed. That saved 100 hundred positions. In the disability branch program, 12 photocopy and processing clerks were reduced when we moved to digitized records.
We make no apologies for the reductions in bureaucratic waste of taxpayers' dollars and turning those into benefits for veterans and their families.
Veterans Affairs December 9th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, since our government came into power, we have, in fact, increased substantially the benefits and services and programs available to veterans.
The short story, of course, is that while opposition members vote against certain issues, we are promoting veterans' programs and services flat out. We continue to do that. We are very focused and will continue to provide services and programs to our veterans on the front line, where they count, not in the backrooms.
Veterans Affairs December 9th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for that gracious question.
We have brought, in fact, real services, meaningful programs for our veterans and will continue to do so. The reality is that they voted against the disability and death compensation, voted against the earnings loss and supplementary retirement benefits, and voted against the veterans independence program and a host of other programs and services.
On this side of the House, we deliver for our veterans.
Veterans Affairs December 9th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, our government has delivered, and today there are more services, more programs, more benefits, and more points of service for our veterans and their families.
Here are the facts. Opposition members voted against funeral and burial funding, they voted against career transition services, plus they voted against the children of deceased veterans education assistance program. On this side of the House, we stand up for our veterans, not for—
Veterans December 8th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I do not think that caring for our veterans is an exclusive entitlement of that member or anyone else for that matter. We all care deeply about our veterans, their sacrifice, their contribution and what they mean to us as a Canadian society.
It would be imprudent for me to enter into a matter that is presently being dealt with before the courts. The beginning of all of this started in 2006, and I do not think I should infuse myself into it at this time.
Veterans December 8th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, as an example of the efficiencies we have created, we have transferred service delivery to some 600 Service Canada offices, closed a few offices and relocated them to Service Canada offices in the very same building.
Over the past 21 weeks, there have been 475 visits to those offices. To put that in perspective, it equates to 22 visits a week when averaged across the entire eight locations, or three per day across the entire network. Some offices get no traffic at all.
Veterans December 8th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, in our efforts to create more efficient, effective services for veterans and their families, we have done a number of things. We have opened or announced 21 new front-line medical facilities for veterans' mental health; worked with the ministry of family and resource centres to support medically-released veterans and their families; partnered with the True Patriot Love Foundation, which gave the largest single philanthropic donation to mental health research in Canadian history; hired new staff to help transfer medical files quicker and more efficiently from National Defence to Veterans Affairs; and I could go on.
Our focus is on front-line service delivery.
Veterans Affairs December 8th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, it is pretty hard to dignify that comment. However, let me assure the hon. member that the decisions taken are always made in consideration of doing the right thing for the right reasons on behalf of our veterans. We make no apologies for reducing bureaucracy and creating efficiencies so that we can in fact translate all of those savings into front-line service delivery for our veterans directly and their families.