Thank you, sir.
Mr. Chairman, honourable members of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, veterans, and guests, it is indeed a privilege and honour to appear before this committee today. Thank you for inviting our association to this meeting.
May I take this opportunity to thank the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs for all the work they have done on behalf of veterans and their families.
My name is Ron Griffis, the national president of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping. Our association was formed in 1989 and consists of 28 chapters located from coast to coast. All of our members are veterans of the Canadian Forces.
I am a member of the New Veterans Charter Advisory Group, the Gerontological Advisory Council, and the Veterans Affairs Canada client advisory committee located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Our association has been associated with the construction of the new Veterans Charter since its beginning. The most recent report involving the new Veterans Charter was created under the guidance and direction of Chairwoman Muriel Westmorland of Hamilton, Ontario, and was received by Veterans Affairs Canada on October 1, 2009.
Three subcommittees had input into this document. They were, generally speaking, family, financial, and rehabilitation. I was involved in the family subcommittee, under subcommittee chairperson Colonel (Retired) Don Ethell. Our heading was “Strengthen Family Support Services". My copy of the report indicates there are a total of 16 recommendations in this new report. I would request that the recommendations not be prioritized but treated as a family of recommendations, with each carrying its own weight.
The new Veterans Charter has always carried the title of a living charter and should be updated on an ongoing basis. The gaps that have been identified in this report should be addressed as soon as possible. We appreciate that we are experiencing financial difficulties, but this should not be the reason we do not correct the identified problems now.
Military personnel and their families give of themselves freely on a continuing and regular basis. They subsequently become veterans. A very specific definition of a veteran is one who has completed basic military and trades training and has been honourably released. To ignore them now just creates problems that will surely surface in the future and cost more to treat and correct.
To do nothing is not acceptable. You have an excellent report at your fingertips, and I respectfully request that all recommendations be implemented as soon as possible. As military members, veterans, and their families enter the Veterans Affairs Canada system, they generally speaking encounter significant bureaucratic difficulties. I understand the office of the veterans ombudsman may be looking into this issue, and hopefully his report suggesting changes to the application for benefits will address this significant issue. It is imperative that Veterans Affairs Canada be afforded all and any assistance you may be able to provide them for a swift implementation of these recommendations.
I point out that since I arrived in this building at a quarter to eight this morning, we have lost six veterans. We lose veterans at the rate of one every 15 minutes on average. Last year, 15 newer veterans—not the traditional veterans from World War II and Korea—committed suicide. We keep losing veterans, and we cannot afford the cost in human lives that has taken place.
Thank you ever so much.