Veterans Affairs Committee on June 5th, 2008

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

You mentioned a mandatory nursing insurance that gave a benefit similar to the veterans independence program. It looked after some modest health and personal care assistance in the home, etc. Then you talked about a mandatory health insurance.

For the average German citizen who is working, how many insurances are they actually having deducted from their income in order to look after health and retirement eventualities?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

If I'm right, I think there are about five insurances.

There is the health insurance. There is the nursing insurance, which is for when you are, for example, no longer able to do anything by yourself, when you need help from a nurse to be washed and so on. Then we have to pay the unemployment insurance. We have to pay into the pension plan. These are the four.

Then, although I would not call it an insurance, every German pays into the unification some percent of his.... It's called the solidarity money. It's like an insurance.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

I stayed in a rebuilt hotel in the former East Germany, and just from walking from the hotel to the former West Germany, I could tell the job that was required.

Earlier you said you had six hospitals, and then you answered again and said you didn't have any, but I think it was probably just because there was a misunderstanding. Do you have six hospitals dedicated to post-traumatic stress disorder care and research? Is that what you meant?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

No, what I meant is that we have six military hospitals all over Germany, and two of them have branches or sections that deal with PTSD, mental health services.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

So you're doing substantial research on post-traumatic stress disorder. Is that an overstatement?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

We are learning through the cases coming up. We are learning with the people who are being treated.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Does your defence health department have a dialogue with our veterans affairs department?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

I don't know, sir. I can't answer that question.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Those were all the questions I had. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Thank you very much.

I'm now going to take my prerogative as chair for my five minutes. As it turns out, it does work out that way.

You mentioned that a widow's pension is 60% and an orphan's pension is 30%. I take it that is calculated on the full.... Is that calculated like a regular soldier's pension? You said they will receive anywhere from 60% to 75% of their income. Do you calculate that on the pension amount for the soldier or do you calculate it on the full amount of the salary for a regular soldier?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

In this case, it is counted on the last income you receive. But the older a person gets, the less money they get. For example, if I'm going to retire and I'm going to get my 72%, and something happens to me before my wife dies, then she will get only 60% of my 72%.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

That's fascinating.

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

This is the time when you are retired, when you are an old man or old woman--sorry for saying this--and it is then calculated on this principle. We base our system on the fact that if you are this age, you have your house, you have your flat, and your normal costs of living are not as high as that of the soldier.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I understand.

Then when you say there's a 30% orphans pension, is that per orphan? Let's say, for example, somebody had four children. It would be 30% per child, for a total of 120%, right?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

Yes. We calculated this amount because children are extremely expensive.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Fair enough.

In the testimony we received from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, I was very intrigued by what they told us about funeral arrangements in military veterans cemeteries. If, for example, a German soldier passes away in Afghanistan or in Kosovo or some place like that, and the family wants to bury him themselves, what funeral arrangements are worked out? Do you pay for that? Do you compensate the family? If they have no family, where would you set them up? Would it be a military cemetery, or would it be some place else? How would you make those arrangements?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

Every soldier who dies in mission receives a full government funeral. A government funeral is with all the honours, with the music and everything needed to honour this person and whatever he has done. The coffin is covered with a flag, and the guards stand by shooting and giving the salute. This is also organized by the military, by the responsible military homeland defence commander in that area. He has to organize this. If they don't want to have this funeral—and this has happened—then the costs are covered up to €3,000.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

What about the burial plot itself?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

Every family can choose the burial place and what sort of burial they want—whether they want the person burned or put in a coffin.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Is that cost covered by the German government or by the family?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

The costs are covered by the government, but only up to a certain amount, which is €3,000.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Do you have military cemeteries so that if somebody passes away and they don't have family they're buried there?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

No, we don't have them in Germany. We only have them in the countries where we fought during the Second World War.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Is there anything that the German system provides that we could benefit from? Is there something that Germany does well that Canada could benefit from?

[LCol Matthias Reibold]

That's a tough question.