I'm shocked to hear the government's position on this.
They said services to veterans provided by Veterans Affairs Canada will be transferred to Service Canada. However, Service Canada staff is not even able to provide services to Canadians, whether it be in terms of employment insurance or other programs. There are cuts happening on all sides. The government claims that it is listening to veterans. However, in Prince Edward Island, for example, it is shutting down all services and people will have to go to Service Canada.
Mr. Chair, the way things are right now, even when we call Service Canada, people are unable to answer our questions without going through Ottawa. When we put questions to the director of Service Canada's Atlantic region, he tells us he will call us back the next day because he has to check on the request. That must mean contacting the Prime Minister's Office. Service Canada cannot make any decisions. Is that where our services for our veterans are going?
I don't think estimates can be changed, either to increase them or allocate them elsewhere. The government and the minister must show leadership. They should make it clear that they will not send their clients to Service Canada and that they will instead keep providing the services from their offices, and that they will not close them down. They should also tell us that they will provide services to our veterans, who, as I mentioned earlier, fought to give us freedom, democracy and more.
Earlier, to try to get our witness Ms. Chaput to talk, Ms. Adams spoke about services. Well, it's not true that things have been going swimmingly since 2006. My office has never received so many calls from veterans. Mr. Chair, many of them came to my office with bags of pills they threw onto the desk, and they asked me to look at what they had. These veterans said they could not even have access to services.
Mr. Chair, I would invite you to come to my office. You will see the medals a veteran brought. He hung them in my assistant's office because he no longer wanted to have them. At the same time, the government is saying that it is doing a great job for veterans. This is unacceptable.
All of that to say that I will support sending a message to the government saying that transferring these services to Service Canada is unacceptable. That is not where these services should be provided. It is not Service Canada's job. Service Canada staff already have their hands full.
We have a minister representing veterans, so I ask him to provide services to these veterans. He should not be handing them over to another institution that does not have the same interest as the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.