Veterans Affairs Committee on March 9th, 2009

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Would it not help us if we had that grid and layout of what we currently do for our veterans? We would be able to compare it on a much easier platform. We know what we're doing for our veterans in Canada now, but the role of the study is to compare it from country to country. It would help us as we go forward, rather than having to wait until the end of it to try to look at comparisons. It would have been helpful today, with Ms. Lenox here, to look at both of them.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

If that's something the committee would like to see, we could probably task the research staff with that and have something done up for the committee, as best we can, for the services that are available.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

I'll pass it on to my colleague for a question.

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Thank you.

I am interested in the comment about the national cemeteries that you don't actually have to buy the land, that the state provides the land.

[Lindee Lenox]

If it's a state cemetery they provide it; if it's a national cemetery we buy it.

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Okay. That's interesting. So if a veteran can be buried in a cemetery of their choice, I'm assuming their spouse and minor children can be buried with them as well?

[Lindee Lenox]

Yes, but they do not need to be in the same cemetery. The spouse and minor children gain eligibility based on the veteran's eligibility. As it sometimes happens, the spouse or the child may predecease the veteran. They may be buried in cemetery X, and the veteran may move across the country and die and be buried in a cemetery over there. So they may not necessarily be in the same cemetery.

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

If the spouse and/or minor children die before the veteran, are all of the expenses associated with their burial covered?

[Lindee Lenox]

Yes, once they are on the cemetery grounds they're covered, but we don't cover the funeral expenses and what not.

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

The funeral expenses aren't covered?

[Lindee Lenox]

We don't cover the funeral home and taking care of the body. But once they are on our grounds, from that point forward there is no expense. So the placing of the casket in the ground, the covering of the grave, the maintaining of the grave, the headstone, the marker--all of those things are at no expense. So the funeral procession comes in, and from that point forward there's no expense to the family.

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

What is the situation with the veteran?

[Lindee Lenox]

It's the same thing.

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

So the actual costs of the casket, the wake, and anything prior to the actual arrival at the site are not covered.

[Lindee Lenox]

That's correct.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

We're over seven minutes. Thank you very much.

Monsieur André.

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I am going to share my time with Mr. Gaudet.

Good afternoon, madam. I would like to know if you have any statistics on the percentage of veterans who choose to be buried in national cemeteries. And is the percentage tending to go up or down?

[Lindee Lenox]

Right now the percentage of veterans who elect to be buried in one of our cemeteries is running at about 14% or 15% of the entire veteran population. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is by the numbers. When you add to that the government headstone and marker program that provides a headstone or marker for placement in a private cemetery, we are actually serving about 40% of the veteran population with either a burial option or a headstone or marker in a private cemetery.

We are not seeing an increase right now in the number of veterans served. This is an area that we're looking at. We feel that in many instances the veterans we're not serving probably do not know that they have this benefit, so it's our job to get that information out or do a better job of getting that information out to people.

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

You said that lack of knowledge about the service is one of the reasons that explains the number of people wanting to be buried in national cemeteries. Are there other reasons why veterans would not want to be buried in those cemeteries? What are the main reasons? I know that, in Quebec, people often want to be buried with their families and loved ones. But the national cemeteries really are reserved for veterans only. Perhaps that is another reason. Could there be others? Could there be a reaction against war and conflict?

[Lindee Lenox]

I can't speak to all the reasons there might be. Certainly as you've pointed out, in many instances the veteran may have a family plot somewhere and they want to be buried with their family. They may not be very close to a national cemetery. We have the 75-mile radius for the population parts, but 75 miles is pretty far to drive for a family member and there are parts of the country that simply do not have a dense enough population for us to even put a cemetery there, so it becomes even farther for those veterans to have to go to be buried in the cemetery. And the only family members who would be eligible to be buried with them would be the spouse and the dependent children, so again that goes back to perhaps wanting to be in a cemetery that's near the parents or other family members.

As for whether the war...I simply don't know. I suppose there may be some who have some reason that they don't want to be buried there because they don't feel good about that, but I really couldn't tell you. I haven't heard that specifically.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Ms. Lenox, this question has already been asked, but I did not understand the answer very well. What is the difference between a state cemetery and a national cemetery?

[Lindee Lenox]

Our national cemeteries are managed by the federal government, by the Department of Veterans Affairs. There are three different types of national cemeteries. There are the VA national cemeteries, which are the 128 that we manage. There are national cemeteries that are managed by the United States park service and those are all historic sites, for example Gettysburg, Antietam, those kind of historic sites, and they're not open. They're historic sites. And then there are the national cemeteries, such as Arlington, that are managed by the Department of the Army and there are only a couple of those, and then there are the state veterans cemeteries. Those cemeteries--the ones that we fund through the state cemetery grants program--mirror our standards as far as how they look and the veterans they serve. Some states have state veterans cemeteries that they've built on their own. They may be old, they may also be historic, but the difference is that they're either managed by the federal government or managed by the state government.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

In a rural area, if a veteran living more than 175 miles from a cemetery dies and is buried in a local cemetery, does the military pay the costs of the funeral?

[Lindee Lenox]

It's my understanding that there are some benefits payable through the veterans benefits claims process to reimburse some of the funeral expenses. We don't administer that program, so I can't really speak to that, but it wouldn't be the entire cost. There may be some reimbursement, and we do provide that headstone free of charge. That's just a simple claim that we provide that and then they don't have to furnish that.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

So, you just pay for the headstone when a veteran is buried more than 175 miles away. You do not pay for the grave, or for upkeep.