Mr. Chairman, lady and gentleman, members of the committee, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to speak to you briefly this afternoon concerning the new Veterans Charter, and in particular the Last Post Fund in relation to the new Veterans Charter.
I speak to you in my capacity as the national president of the Last Post Fund, of which I've been a member for the past 20 years, serving first as a director then as president as well of the Quebec branch. The last four years I've been on the national executive and am now completing two years as the national president.
My military career spans 30 years, both in the regular and the reserve forces. I hold a degree in electrical engineering from the Royal Military College in Kingston. I've been a member of the Quebec bar since 1990 and I have an M.B.A. from McGill University in Montreal. I've been privileged through my career and my life in all those ways. There are others who have suffered significantly, as we've heard some of this afternoon.
I'd like to give you a brief history of the Last Post Fund. That's one of our many challenges; most Canadians and indeed most military unfortunately are not aware of exactly what the Last Post Fund is and what we do.
Allow me to recall the origins of the Last Post Fund.
Our history started in December 1908 when an unconscious man was found and taken to the Montreal General Hospital. He was found on the street. Arthur Hair was the head orderly at the Montreal General Hospital and he found an envelope in the poor man's pocket. It was issued by Britain's war office. The envelope contained the honourable discharge certificate for trooper James Daly, who had served the Empire for 21 years. He was suffering from hypothermia and malnutrition. He died several days later at the age of 53. His remains were to be sent to the morgue for disposal but Mr. Hair raised money privately to give the soldier a dignified funeral. He was then buried in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery on Mount Royal in Montreal. That started the work of the Last Post Fund and its mission, which is to provide a dignified funeral and burial to every military veteran who dies impoverished.
The early work of the fund was exclusively supported by private donations. However, in 1921 when the fund was federally incorporated, the Last Post Fund began to receive regular government financial support, as indeed we believe was entirely appropriate, but as I'll recount in a minute, has suffered somewhat in recent decades.
The organization then expanded its operations in 1921 to cover the entire country, and so it has done. In 1995 it was mandated to deliver the funeral and burial program, as we know it today, that's run by Veteran Affairs Canada. We have an agreement with Veterans Affairs Canada to run that funeral and burial program.
Since 1909 hundreds of dedicated men and women have ensured that deceased veterans receive the respectful recognition they have earned through their service and sacrifices. Consequently, impoverished veterans are guaranteed a dignified burial, as they fully deserve.
The mandate of the Last Post Fund is a non-profit organization, as mentioned, founded in Montreal in 1909. Throughout the course of its history the organization has arranged funerals, and where necessary, burial and grave markers for more than 150,000 veterans from Canada, Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Belgium, France, Poland, South Africa, and other allied nations.
In addition to delivering the funeral and burial program on behalf of Veteran Affairs, the Last Post Fund supports other initiatives aimed at keeping alive the memory of Canadian veterans. These include our own military cemetery; a beautiful place in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. I would encourage you to stop by there at some point if you've never been. The National Field of Honour in Pointe-Claire was named a National Historic Site about six years ago. I had the privilege of preparing that application and submitting it to Parks Canada, and we're delighted to be recognized as a National Historic Site, as indeed it is. That cemetery has been in operation since approximately 1930.
Our burials include at our own military cemetery in Pointe-Claire, as mentioned, where more than 21,000 burials of veterans have been performed since 1930. The fund also supports other local fields of honour and is present in more than 2,900 cemeteries throughout the country. The Last Post Fund recognizes the importance of honouring those who served our nation.
Every year, the first Sunday in June—June 1 this year—it holds commemorative ceremonies on the St. Lawrence River for those from the naval services who have perished in war. At the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges and Mount Royal cemeteries in Montreal, and in the afternoon on that Sunday, at the National Field of Honour in Pointe-Claire.
Other activities include the grave marking program, through which the Last Post Fund provides military markers for veterans who lie in unmarked graves. We also work in conjunction with the Department of National Defence to provide markers for members of the Canadian Forces.
I'd like to address the recent improvements to the funeral and burial program, which are very significant and have occurred only in the last year or so.
In recent years, Veterans Affairs asked that we reduce our administrative budget by nearly a million dollars. The rationale for this was the decline in “traditional” veterans of the Second World War and Korea; traditional veterans are what they're known as. The fact is that we have more than 600,000 of what are sometimes termed as “modern-day” veterans, who were not covered by this program at all.
We're losing about 10,000 to 15,000 of the traditional veterans every year. There only remain fewer than 100,000 in Canada today. Because of that decline, we were forced to reduce our budget for the funeral and burial program—which had some logic to it—and we closed many of our offices across the country; we have branches in every province.
But the logic was flawed because of the 600,000 modern-day veterans who were not covered, indeed, since beginning of the program. Of those 600,000 modern-day veterans, Veterans Affairs Canada has compiled the statistics and estimates that 400 per year die in impoverished circumstances. They were all ineligible for the funeral and burial program.
All through these tough times, we continued to advocate for changes to the program, namely, on the issue of increasing the maximum allowance payable to funeral homes, which hadn't changed in decades. The amount allowed was $3,600, whereas the average cost of a funeral in Canada was between $6,000 and $8,000. Fortunately, in the federal government's 2013 economic action plan, our advocacy paid off. Last year, the maximum allowance payable to funeral homes was increased to $7,376, which is much more in line with the realities of the cost of a funeral. This was one of the most significant efforts of the Last Post Fund, but not the most significant.
The big issue was the eligibility for the funeral and burial program, which we wanted to extend to all Canadian Forces veterans in financial need at the time of their death. In 1921, the Government of Canada first recognized its obligation, on behalf of all Canadians, to provide funding for the dignified funeral and burial of all Canadian veterans who pass away with limited or no financial resources. However, in recent decades, the regulations governing the funeral and burial program have stipulated that only Second World War and Korean War veterans, and those in receipt of a disability pension, would be eligible for the program.
In recent years, because of this, and because of the aging population of modern-day veterans, the Last Post Fund publicized the fact that our mission includes those ineligible members. In the last two years, we spent $98,000 of our approximately $120,000 in donated funds—that's all we have—to bury 31 veterans, because they were ineligible for the program. Our funds were virtually depleted, and donations are hard to come by. That's why we were so delighted that in the 2014 economic action plan the government of the day recognized this obligation of all Canadians and made the modern-day veterans eligible for the funeral and burial program. It was an enormous relief to the Last Post Fund. We will continue our mission indefinitely with those funds in support of Veterans Affairs Canada and the program.
There remains a little bit of work to be done—and I say “a little bit” in terms of the enormous benefit of this past budget—but it's not insignificant. In 1995, the estate exemption for eligibility for this program was $24,000. Because of the fiscal difficulties at that time and the attempt to reach a zero deficit in the federal government program review, that amount was reduced to $12,000.
Just briefly, the estate exemption means that if a veteran dies and if his estate has more than that amount, then that veteran and that veteran's family are not eligible for the program. I would point out, to be transparent on this, that the eligibility and that threshold exempts the house, the principal residence of the veteran, and the car. So other than the house and the car, if veterans had, in those days, $24,000 or more, they were not eligible. That's not very much money, particularly if one wants to leave a little bit for the children, etc., in one's will.
That amount was reduced to $12,000 in 1995 and has not changed since. Today, if a veteran dies with $12,000 or more, that veteran and that veteran's family are not eligible for the program. I find that a travesty. I find it illogical. If the right number in 1995 was $24,000, why is that not the right number today? And that number today, according to the inflation calculator of the Bank of Canada, is $37,000. There's been 42% inflation loss since 1995, so the right number today would be $37,000 rationally looking at this. That is the biggest problem we have today, and what it means is that many of our veterans who pass away with very limited financial resources are not caught. Their family must come up with the $7,000 to $10,000 for the funeral and burial out of the very limited means that remain in the veteran's estate. I don't think, and we don't think, that is right or fair.
The exemption for the estate must be increased to $37,000, which I think would be fair, and the second element of this is that it should be indexed because we got ourselves into this problem over many years, and $12,000 hasn't changed since 1995. What a travesty. How can that be supported? In any event, it has to be increased to $37,000 to be back to where it was in 1995, and indexed from here on so we don't get into that problem again.
To summarize, what the Last Post Fund would like to see is the inclusion of the funeral and burial program in the new Veterans Charter. In a certain sense, administratively or bureaucratically, it doesn't really matter whether it's in the new Veterans Charter of independently legislated, as long as the program gets delivered. That much I grant, but I'm thinking that it falls within the parameters of the new Veterans Charter for benefits to veterans and their families, and that's exactly what it is. For historical reasons that I don't fully understand, it was not exactly relegated but put into the commemorative side of Veterans Affairs, and that's where it is today. Really, it is a service to veterans and should probably be part of the new Veterans Charter and the benefit to families. That should be given good consideration by this committee.
Second, the estate exemption, as I mentioned, should be increased to $37,000 as of today, and finally, it should be indexed. The state exemption should be indexed from here on forward, but also the benefit that I mentioned of $7,600 for the funeral itself so that again we don't lose through the erosion of inflation over time.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I commend the committee for its work and I look forward to responding as best I can to any questions you may have concerning the Last Post Fund or the administration of the funeral and burial program.
Thank you, sir.