Thank you, Mr. Chair.
VeteranVoice.info is glad to be here and appreciates the invitation. I'll give a quick description of VeteranVoice, or as it is more commonly known, VVi. VVi is an open website that acts as an Internet portal for veterans to read the latest news, information, and benefits that involve veterans. This also includes our RCMP veterans.
VVi's virtual community has a membership of 100,000. VVi also has a Canadian soldiers assistance team forum, or CSAT. This is also an open forum to encourage veterans, RCMP, and currently serving military members to help each other. Be it a problem with a VAC benefit or the daily grind of trying to handle life, it's veterans helping veterans and helping soldiers. I encourage the committee to visit VVi and the CSAT forum to read and understand what veterans are currently going through.
VVi also has a database of veteran information going back 10 years for academics, politicians, veterans, and reporters to use. Three veterans operate VVi: Major (Retired) C.J. Wallace, is the webmaster and the founder of VVi; Captain (Retired) Perry Gray is the chief editor; and my duties are publisher and CSAT forum master. I retired as a sergeant.
I encourage this committee to visit VVi. As already stated in the last four or five meetings, VVi agrees that it's time for this committee to finally write the report to Parliament. By holding these never-ending testimonies, trying to find the magic potion to cure all that ails the new Veterans Charter, you are inadvertently not showing any respect to the veteran community. Instead, you look as if you are procrastinating by not doing your work in a timely manner.
To show the veterans you are not procrastinating, you can start to complete your report by seriously looking at the two reports and two reviews from the office of the Veterans Ombudsman. As you know, one of these reports is an actuarial, which for some reason no one in Parliament is mentioning.
Over the last three decades, I have watched the wheels of government grind along, and an actuarial that is not mentioned at all by the government is an actuarial that is above refute by being purposely ignored. This actuarial shows the shortfall in the new Veterans Charter, that there is no financial security for the injured and most severely injured veteran post-65. It also proves that right now veterans will be living below the poverty line when they reach 65 years of age.
What other glaringly embarrassing fact is this committee looking for to start the report to Parliament?
The office of the Veterans Ombudsman was created on November 11, 2007. Its mandate was to make sure veterans programs, benefits, and vocational rehab are fulfilling the needs of veterans in a non-partisan manner. Many reports and reviews have been written and presented by the Veterans Ombudsman to the standing committees over the last seven years. Over those seven years, ombudsman's reports and reviews were never publicly accepted or supported by veteran organizations.
The current two reviews and two reports you have in your possession now are approved, supported, and documented with the VAC minister by veteran organizations. To help you understand the impact of what veteran organizations mean, it means a large majority of the veteran population in Canada is currently on the same page, and we are telling you, enough with the meetings, studies, and reviews; write the damn report already. That will motivate parliamentarians to improve veterans' lives now.
These veteran organizations are also telling Parliament for the first time that you created a Veteran Ombudsman, he has done his job. We veterans approve and support what he has done, so take the non-partisan recommendation seriously and act accordingly on said recommendations.
In my own opinion, if your report motivates all parliamentarians to act in a non-partisan manner like they did when they passed the new Veterans Charter back in 2005 to improve the financial security for disabled veterans, it will take care of a large number of other recommendations you have received in the past. This will allow your next round of standing committee meetings to be more focused and effective on a reduced amount of recommendations to improve the new Veterans Charter, such as, how do we hire veterans and train them to help soldiers transition to civilian life or deal with their life-altering injuries while dealing with Veterans Affairs.
These possible veteran employees of VAC can act as a buffer between VAC and the client by helping with applications, benefits, and how spouses and children can get help to ease their stress. It has been proven over the last few years that helping a veteran is more effective than throwing the veteran knee-deep into VAC's applications and rules and into dealing with the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. We know how to approach, help, and listen to that soldier, sailor, or airman who is facing the biggest change in their life.
To sum it up, it is time to move forward and leave the flaws and mistakes in the creation and implementation of the new Veterans Charter where they belong: in the past. You now have a great opportunity to move forward and improve the new Veterans Charter, as you have the approval from the majority of the veteran community in Canada to write your report to Parliament using the two reviews and two reports submitted by our Veterans Ombudsman, therefore proving that the new Veterans Charter is, as promised when passed in 2005, a living charter.
Thank you.