It's really hard to really trust what you're saying. To say, “What are your priorities?” and “Trust us, just give us your priorities for now and trust us, we're going to make more changes”. It's only been one change in 10 years. As I was saying, it's only eight years since 2006, but by the time any changes that come from this committee are implemented, it's going to be another at least 18 months by the time it goes through Parliament, gets gazetted, and goes through the system. So it's hard to trust when you say, “Give us your three priorities”, but I will, and those are the three priorities that we provided from the stakeholders and from the veterans consultation group, and from the Veterans Ombudsman.
The three priorities are:
The earnings loss benefit must be improved to 100% of pre-release income, continued for life, and include increases for projected career earnings for a Canadian Armed Forces member.
The maximum disability award must be increased consistent with what is provided to injured civilian workers who receive general damages in law courts.
The current inequity with regard to ELB for Class A and Class B reservists less than 180 days for service attributable injuries must cease.
It's time that we start doing something here and start providing the benefits, because as I was saying, not one of you would take a 25% pay cut, so why would you expect an injured veteran to do the same?
Thank you very much.