Evidence of meeting #7 for Veterans Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was buried.
A recording is available from Parliament.
As an Individual
That's correct. We have nothing to do with the upkeep of private cemeteries, no.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative David Sweet
Thank you for your questions, Mr. Gaudet.
Mr. Stoffer, five minutes.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and madame. Thank you very much for appearing before us today. We greatly appreciate your appearance.
Madame, I also want to thank the United States for the liberation of the Netherlands in World War II. As you know, they liberated the southern part in Limburg, where my parents were from. The Kentucky brigade did the part, and we want to thank you very much for that.
I'd like my first question to be, what is your definition of a veteran in the United States?
As an Individual
Wow. There's actually a definition within law, which I cannot cite for you because it goes on and on. For our purposes, any veteran who served on active duty prior to 1980, as long as they served and received an other than dishonourable discharge, they're going to be eligible for burial or for burial benefits. After 1980, a 24-month rule was added in, so the veteran had to serve 24 months to be eligible for burial.
Is this what you're looking for, or are you looking for a general, overall definition? A veteran is somebody who served in the military, basically.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
My concern would be this. If I am a brand new recruit and I go to a training base and I'm killed in training and I've only been there, say, for five weeks, would I be classified as a veteran and be allowed the burial benefits you've described here today?
As an Individual
Yes. Anyone who's killed on active duty, as long as they were serving honourably when they were killed on active duty, is eligible.
NDP
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
When you talked about the spouse as eligible for burial as well, I'm taking a scenario of an individual who served, say, in Korea or World War II and they were divorced and never remarried and that person passed on. Would their divorced spouse be eligible for burial as well?
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
So once you're divorced, that cuts off any benefit in the long term in that regard.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Thank you.
Also, how old does a child have to be before they lose that particular benefit? You say minor children and dependent children.
As an Individual
It's up to the age of 23 if they're going to school full-time. After the age of 23, the only time they're eligible is if they're totally disabled and dependent. You could have a 50-year-old child if that person is disabled and totally dependent on the parents. Other than that, if they're not going to school full-time, then it's up to the age of 18.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
In this country, by the time we go to bed tonight, we'll probably lose anywhere from 75 to 85 World War II or Korean War veterans due to old age. If you include their spouses, you're looking at about 140 people a day who will pass on by the end of the night. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that figure is 10 times higher in the United States, that you will lose anywhere from 900 to 1,000 World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans by the tonight. So your staff must be extremely busy trying to maintain all the statistical information to get the proper documentation and then the proper burial sites.
How do you manage to keep all that in check? That must be extremely busy for your department.
As an Individual
We have wonderful statisticians and we have all that information. Yes, it's certainly a lot of information, but we do have it, and it's good information. Your numbers are exactly right; we lose approximately 1,000 a day.
I don't know how many staff it takes to keep up with all that, but we have it, and it's available to us.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
My last question for you is this. You mentioned the overseas sites you look after as well. In Canada a lot of our sites are done through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The ones at Omaha and Sicily that you have, those are done strictly by the United States, am I correct, or do you do those in conjunction with any other allies as well?
As an Individual
Those would be the American Battle Monuments Commission sites, and that's an entirely different federal agency from the VA, so we do not maintain those cemeteries. They're maintained separately. I don't know what the relationship is with the various countries.
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
The last question for you is this. As you know, there's an island in Halifax where 200 American veterans from the War of 1812 are buried. Are you aware of that?
NDP
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
By way of invitation on behalf of my colleague, who's also from Nova Scotia, if you ever get a chance to come up, you're welcome to have a look at it. It's a beautiful site.
