Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I am pleased to be here today to talk to you about the Enhanced New Veterans Charter Act.
This fall the minister announced four changes to the new Veterans Charter programming. The first change was to improve the earnings loss benefit. As has been noted, this only requires a regulatory change, so it's not technically a part of the bill. That benefit, which replaces lost income for veterans undergoing rehabilitation, or who cannot be suitably and gainfully employed, will be increased to ensure a minimum annual pre-tax income of $40,000. So this is essentially an enhancement proposed for the earnings loss benefit.
The other three changes are a part of this bill, which amends the new Veterans Charter and the older Pension Act. These changes will, firstly, increase access to the permanent impairment allowance in the new Veterans Charter and the exceptional incapacity allowance under the old Pension Act to ensure that seriously disabled or injured veterans have access to either one of these benefits—so either access to the permanent impairment allowance under the new Veterans Charter or access to the exceptional incapacity allowance under the Pension Act.
These changes will also provide a supplement of $1,000 per month to veterans in receipt of the permanent impairment allowance who cannot be suitably and gainfully employed.
Finally, it will provide the payment options for the disability award. The bill, as you are aware, will also be used to make minor housekeeping changes.
We listened with interest to debate at the second reading. I'd like first to take this opportunity to thank many of you for your words of support in the House. I would also like to address some of the concerns you have raised.
Many of you wondered why we did not increase the lump-sum payments. The concern stakeholders brought to us was a lack of a monthly income for certain veterans. Increasing the lump sum by itself would not fix that. However, increasing support provided through our financial support programs would. As such, we proposed increasing the earnings loss benefit and the permanent impairment allowance. The new Veterans Charter is a more complete approach to helping those injured in the line of duty and helping their families. It not only provides for lump-sum disability awards for pain and suffering, but it also provides monthly financial support when needed, such as earnings loss benefit, permanent impairment allowance, and the Canadian Forces income supplement, as well as case management, rehabilitation, and support for families.
We also found that many veterans—some 69% when surveyed—were satisfied with their lump-sum payments. When we surveyed veterans who had received a disability award, we found that 85% thought their lump sum was well used: 71% had invested at least a portion of that amount; some paid down a debt or put money in a savings account. That said, as some of you noted in debate, we also found that 31% weren't satisfied. As the minister has noted, 31% is enough to cause us to rethink the method of payment. So we are now, through this bill, proposing a choice of payment options.
You also asked why it took so long to bring forward changes to the charter. It's easy to forget that this is a new program with an innovative design and no experiential history upon which to build. Five years in the life of a program is but one cycle. In April we only completed, really, that first cycle. In spite of excellent program design and robust forecasts, the living charter is subject to what happens out in the real world, and we needed to collect that data and evidence to make full study prior to making changes.
In debate, Ms. Duncan noted some of the other changes the Legion would have liked to have seen. Regarding those specific to the legislation, I have addressed the issue of the disability awards, but the other items raised were different options for increasing the earnings loss benefit, providing it for life, and basing it on projected career earnings.
On this point, Mr. Chair, when designing these programs we take a whole-of-government approach and strive to keep our benefits similar to what the Department of National Defence and other similar federal programs provide. For example, National Defence provides 75% of salary in their income replacement programs. So consistency between what is received by those in service and those who exit service is important.
Mr. Stoffer, you had raised some specific concerns on the bill in debate that I'd be happy to speak to further in questions, if still required, but I did want to touch on the issue of the use of “may” as opposed to “shall” in our legislation. A convention of legislative drafting has evolved such that the word “may” is used and interpreted as “shall” in many instances. So in the new Veterans Charter and also in these amendments being brought forward in Bill C-55, when a veteran applies for and meets the eligibility criteria to qualify for a benefit, the word “may” is simply interpreted as the mandatory “shall”. The minister can do nothing other than grant the benefit and has no discretionary authority to refuse the application when the eligibility criteria have been met.
Mr. Chair, those are simply some observations we would make. We thank you for this time to address the committee, and we are here to assist you in your deliberation and certainly to answer any further questions you may have.
Merci beaucoup.