Veterans Affairs Committee on March 16th, 2010

[Bernard Butler]

It's certainly not my area of expertise, but I can make an effort at responding to that.

Again, I think the context one needs to look at is the context of the evolution of the long-term-care bed programming. It was introduced after the war, when we did not have provincial health care systems in place. So to that extent, the current arrangement of course has evolved over many years. So you're absolutely right that veterans coming out of those periods of those world wars, the traditional veterans, do have access.

For the younger veteran, they do have access if they have service-related disabilities requiring that kind of care. But the move clearly, which is what our veterans are telling us, is in the direction of support in community-based facilities where veterans can be nearer to home, nearer to their communities, and not be forced to relocate and so on.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

I appreciate that. But right now I'm getting the drift that all these veterans, once the last Korean guy dies, will fall under provincial jurisdiction in terms of location for a bed, not federal. So the federal government under DVA would not actually pay for that bed; they would just fall under this provincial system.

Am I correct in that? Because you're right, they do like to stay in their communities if there are beds available. But right now, for Camp Hill and the Belcher, DVA pays the province for those beds. Will DVA be paying for the beds of these two corporals when they become in their eighties?

[Bernard Butler]

If they have service-related...if they're pensioned or they have disability awards for which they're being institutionalized, if you will--

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Not now, but sixty years from now.

[Bernard Butler]

I'm assuming that under the current program arrangement they would be eligible for care in a community facility, in which case, as I'm sure you understand, the department essentially provides a top-up to what the provincial, depending on the provincial jurisdiction, would pay for treatment, between that and what the actual cost of care was. So it's a contribution arrangement in a sense.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

The reason I asked that is because Siobhan Coady, one of the Liberal members, has a person in Newfoundland and I have one in Musquodoboit Harbour, and they're both similar cases. They're both in their sixties, have severe dementia, and DVA will not assist them in getting a bed. They fall under provincial jurisdiction, yet they have service-related injuries from other concerns, not necessarily the dementia. So that's my problem.

They served their country, they have an injury, although with the current one, with the stress they're going through, they do not qualify for Camp Hill. If they go to the province, the province may try to find them something, but DVA doesn't participate in that, and that's my frustration. My fear is that these two 31-year-olds down the road are not going to have access to those beds, or at least priority access, without federal government assistance. Am I correct in that assumption?

[Bernard Butler]

I think you're correct in that assumption right at the moment, yes.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Just to check back with the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party, it's all exhausted.

Thank you very much, Mr. Butler and Madam MacCormack, and we'll wait on that one submission Madam Crombie requested.

We'll suspend for a couple of minutes and go in camera for business.

Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]