Evidence of meeting #2 for Veterans Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bloc.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Yes. The two that Mr. Perron had that aren't on this list are PTSD and disability pensions.
I've finished those four check marks, so now I'm moving on to Mr. St. Denis's suggestions.
Veterans charter.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
Well, the review process, but I guess you could include it under there.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Okay.
Let me ask you, Mr. St. Denis, do you want the second one under bill of rights or the new veterans charter?
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
To be fair, the way it's technically working is that there was the previous veterans charter, and we'll be looking at a new veterans bill of rights.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
I meant review under the recently adopted veterans charter. The bill of rights is future--
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Okay, so you want it under the charter. Fair enough. I'll put the check mark there.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
On the other correction, I would add under the half-mast flag Peace Tower, the media at repatriation--the whole issue of repatriation of a deceased soldier's remains. The two issues came up at the same time.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Okay. I'll word that as “media at ceremony”, “media at repatriation”, and the other one as “Peace Tower”.
So there was a second vote for Agent Orange, one for the media at repatriation, and one for the Peace Tower. Legion cenotaph...I'll put that at the top here.
At some point we'll have to deal with this, because some people are giving us five suggestions rather than just three, so we're skewing things a little bit.
Mr. Thibault had “sustainability of the legions”. Fair enough. So I'm putting a check mark, Mr. Thibault, under Royal Canadian Legion.
VIP...right. Is medical leave on there? Yes, it is.
Mr. Shipley has veterans bills of rights, veterans review and appeal board, and the ombudsman--that's a double check mark now.
Mrs. Hinton has veterans bills of rights, ombudsman, and veterans independence program.
Now let's look at some of the ones we don't have. I'll maybe leave this open for whoever wants to contribute first--those people who don't already have something submitted in writing.
Who wants to volunteer?
Mr. Rota.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
The three that I think we should look at are: the half-mast Peace Tower flag--it's already on there--PTSD, and the cenotaph program.
My decisions were partly based on looking at how much time we have. You have to be reasonable about what we can get involved in and do successfully, as opposed to taking on something huge that we won't be able to accomplish.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
You have most of the requests we have here, but I'll include pensions--superannuation and disability pensions.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
We have included pensions. That was added by Monsieur Perron. So I'll put a second check mark there.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
I agree with Mr. Rota. Time is running short, so we have to pick a couple of things we can do very quickly--maybe not a full report, but a letter of recommendation to the minister, or whatever.
Most of the ones I mentioned to you before unfortunately deal with defence. Some of these issues deal with the defence department, not necessarily the veterans department. That distinguishing line between....
For example, I'd like to have the sale of medals at flea markets and garage sales outlawed. But I've been told that's not what a veterans committee looks at; that's what the defence committee looks at. There are other issues regarding that.
The one I'd like to move on the most that I think can be moved very quickly is the extension of the VIP program to before 1981.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
If we did one thing prior to the summer, that's the one I'd like us to move on. We're not talking about very many women here, and every day that goes by they pass on. If we could move something of that nature very quickly, then the remaining women who are left--the widows, in most cases--would be helped.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
4:10 p.m.
NDP
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Actually, there are a number of members here who are in the same position, but I have an advantage, having sat on both the defence committee and the veterans affairs committee, and I don't have quite so much trouble sorting out which falls into which category. Half-masting is defence, media at repatriations is defence, and superannuation is defence. So those are all things that we really, as a veterans affairs committee, don't have any say over.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
You can only look at them; you can't make any recommendations.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Yes, defence could probably look into this and actually accomplish something. All we could do would be to make some sort of recommendation, which would probably fall on deaf ears.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
We would hope it doesn't fall on deaf ears, because we can bring it to this committee.
We do think veterans would have a lot to say about the half-mast. That's my number one tick, but I think it's up to somebody to go to Canadians and find out what we want for a new policy. We're not saying there's anything wrong with the 80-year-old policy, but what we'd like to say is that maybe it's time we looked at it. Maybe we'll reaffirm that this is what we should be doing. But we should have some kind of say. Some committee should look at it. I don't know that it's right to pass it off to defence. Let's talk to the veterans from across Canada about this. Let's find out what they want to do with this. I think it's up to us to find a new policy, to take it out of the political atmosphere, which was very sour the last time we had to repatriate some unfortunate soldiers from Afghanistan. So I think it's up to us to do something about that.
That's my number one vote. Number two would be the Royal Canadian Legion issue. Number three would be the VIP.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Okay.
Now I'm going to go to Mr. Sweet and Mr. Mayes, if they have anything.