First, in regard to the long-term care, I have to go back to the Gerontological Advisory Council report, Keeping the Promise. We were trying to address access to long-term care for modern veterans in the context of that report.
The compromise from the veterans organizations providing advice to the department was that we should at least give access to those modern veterans who are medically released or those who have served in a special duty area. That would also have helped simplify some of the eligibility grids. Unfortunately, the department did not see fit, basically, to even reply to the recommendations of their chosen council.
That then brings me to the second point. Because we saw really no reply and no action on Keeping the Promise, we are worried about the fact that the New Veterans Charter Advisory Group recommendations will also be dropped into a void. We also know that this report, even though it has stamped on it “October 2009”, was really provided to the department in June 2009. The officials were being consulted throughout the making of this report so they should have been ready to reply to the recommendations enclosed in the report.
I'll give the benefit of the doubt to the minister, but because of those instances, the lack of response on Keeping the Promise and the fact that the report has been with the department since June, we can only ask the question: what is the delay? Keep in mind the fact that we were promised all along that this was a living charter, that when gaps were identified, solutions would be found.
We're not trying to attack the department here. We realize that the department is doing a good job.
From Legion Magazine, I'd like to quote a veteran who says:
I come under the Veterans Affairs Canada office in Peterborough, Ont. From my experience this must be the finest group of civil servants anywhere! As an example, as soon as they found out that my wife had fallen and broken her hip, they called to see if I required additional help
They are a fine group of civil servants, but there is obviously some lack of being able to give a response to things that are crucial and critical to the care of veterans.