Thank you, Mr. Lemieux.
The critical injury benefit was meant to address something that the disability award did not, which is those cases of someone suffering a traumatic injury, but because they made a full recovery, their compensation under the disability award, the lump sum as it's known, was very low. In fact, all members of this committee can point to veterans who would fall into that category, such as veterans who spent time in the role 3 hospital in Afghanistan, in Germany in intensive care, or sometimes had multiple operations, but because they had a positive recovery—because our role 3 hospital in Afghanistan was one of the best in the world—their recovery put them at a disadvantage under the new veterans charter disability award. I don't want to name names, but we can all think of cases where someone had that injury and got a very low disability award. That actually impacted their wellness because they took that to mean that the system did not acknowledge their traumatic period of pain, suffering, and recovery.
The critical injury benefit is meant to try to address that. At the same time, it also addresses some of the most seriously injured men and women from Afghanistan, but the critical piece is that it's now compensating for the pain and suffering of recovery. It's in addition to the disability award and it very much also could apply while the person's still in the Canadian Armed Forces recovering. It's a quick payment. The hope is that they recover and stay in the Canadian Armed Forces, but it's an inherent pain and suffering and recognition award.
It is meant to be very targeted. Regarding the new veterans charter, the biggest challenge that the ombudsman has pointed out is the myth that has developed around it that there's only this lump sum and that's all a veteran gets. We're all trying to dispel that myth because it's not fair to Canadians to leave them with that impression. What the new veterans charter does is focus on transition, so early rehabilitation and financial and medical support, and then for the more moderately to severely injured, it stacks benefits on top of one another. That makes it a little more complex.
So there's a disability award, there's potentially a critical injury benefit, and then the veterans will get earnings loss while they're doing rehabilitation, an earning loss benefit that is an income supplement. They may get the permanent impairment allowance. They may get a permanent impairment allowance supplement. For many of them, at 65 they will then get the retirement income security benefit. As you see, it's a stacking approach. What we're trying to do for the most seriously injured is to streamline those stacked benefits—the PIA, the PIAS and RISB—into a single pension for the most seriously injured.