Mr. Stoffer, thank you for your support to veterans as well.
I'll comment first on the first part of your question regarding the statements made in our brochure about the words “may be eligible”. When this program was initially set up and finally approved in regulations in the year 2005 there had been already some changes to who would be eligible for a veteran's funeral. The first criterion is there must be a demonstration that the individual who passed away is indeed a veteran. It takes a little bit of time to get the archived material to determine if this veteran served his country.
After that it's a matter of choice for the government in regulation that this is a program to look after the burial of veterans who are, at the time of their death, in financial need.
Prior to program review in 1995, the eligibility criteria and moneys were that roughly $25,000 could be in the estate of a veteran if he was married, exclusive of the house and car. In 1995, as a result of program review, this means test dropped to $12,015. By virtue of doing that, it then denied a whole group of veterans who had before that date been eligible because their estates in 1994 could have been $25,000. Now we've just slashed that in half.
If the veteran who is deceased has no larger amount in his estate after all the bills are paid of $12,015, he is then eligible for a funeral benefit. It has to do with the moneys allocated in law by the Government of Canada. It has nothing to do with the Last Post Fund.
Continuing on, yes, in my opening remarks I attempted to convey that the Last Post Fund has been frustrated by the slowness of change. We used to pass humour about how long does it take to have regulations amended? Well, it took ten years to have them created and they were flawed right from the outset. The strategy adopted by the bureaucrats was let's not derail the regulatory process; let's get the regulations approved and then we'll go for the amendments.
We have been working on the amendments now since 2005. It looks like it may take just as long to get the amendments approved as it did to get the regulations themselves approved.
Also, I made the statement in my opening remarks that there are things in the regulations themselves that shackle us in delivering the funeral and burial benefit. I gave you specific examples of what is not allowed in a veteran's funeral: the obituary, the death notice, the clergy, flowers, and even the Canadian flag. I can give you more specifics if you're curious, but in the case of a serving member of the Canadian Forces or RCMP there are no such restrictions. There is just an envelope of money to look after the funeral. And as the former CDS General Hillier announced one time, a funeral costs whatever it takes.