A lot of committee time over the last seven months was needed to deal with a host of issues. First of all, there was the monument to the mission in Afghanistan, which could have been dealt with quite easily and quickly. I'll come back to that in just a second. People saw the Liberals trying every way they could to avoid having a vote on that motion. A lot of meetings were used in an attempt to cover up for the Prime Minister.
There are a lot of things the committee needs to deal with. I've listed some of them. It's important that we deal with them. I believe, given all the time that has been used to cover for the Prime Minister, that we should ensure that we continue to work for veterans over the summer. Veterans don't get three months off in the summer. Their needs never stop. We need to deal with those needs and concerns.
I've listed a few topics. I want to speak very briefly to them. I'm certainly hoping that all members will agree and we can pass this motion and get some meetings scheduled this summer.
First, to start from the bottom of the list, is the study concerning the wartime service designation. I want to point out that two separate motions were brought before this committee that we agreed to study. They both related to wartime service designation.
The first was one that I brought forward on February 26, 2023:
That pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee conduct a study on the difference in benefit allocations for Veterans with designated war time service vs special mission service.
On November 28 of last year, Wilson Miao also brought forward a motion:
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee undertake a comprehensive study reviewing (a) the definition of “War”, “Wartime Service”, and “Special Duty Service; and (b) the difference, the process of determining, and criteria for Veteran’s benefits in respect of “Wartime Service” and “Special Duty Service”; that the committee hold a minimum of 4 meetings on this study; and that the committee report its comprehensive findings and recommendations to the House, the Department of National Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
One would assume that the meeting we're having today is to deal with those motions. However, I note that the study talks about the recognition of Persian Gulf veterans. Nowhere does it mention a very critical aspect of this, which is wartime service. It's the critical thing that veterans of the Persian Gulf War—and it is a war—are asking for. They want their service to be recognized as wartime service, yet nothing in the study we've now begun indicates that it's about wartime service and the recognition of that, which is a very critical element. I know that the Persian Gulf veterans I've spoken to in the time since notice came out are quite upset. They're incredibly upset. They feel like they're being used as pawns.
The Liberal government is trying to avoid dealing with the Afghan monument situation and with the controversy that's been created because of the Prime Minister's interference in the Afghan monument. The way they've tried to do that is by bringing forward this study, which doesn't even address the key point that these veterans of the Persian Gulf War are seeking. We need to get to a study about the wartime service designation. That's something we could be doing during the summer.
Of course, there's the growing problem of homelessness among veterans. This is a problem we're seeing. It affects the entire Canadian population. We're seeing tent cities popping up all over this country in places where you never would have imagined you'd see something like that. With all the effects of the inflationary spending of this Trudeau government and all the effects of the cost of living crisis we're seeing as a result of it, as well as the housing crisis we're experiencing in this country, people are suffering, not the least of whom are veterans.
There are a lot of good organizations out there doing a lot of good work to try to address this issue. I know that we would all agree it needs to be addressed and dealt with. It needs to be done. We need to know what exactly Veterans Affairs is planning to do to be a part of assisting with that and what can be done to ensure that no veteran ever goes homeless.
We should be looking at that. That's something we could be working on. It's an urgent matter, there's no question about it. We're seeing more and more veterans all the time using food banks and without adequate housing or without housing at all. That should never be the case. These people served our country, and we owe it to them to ensure that we take care of them. We need to be looking at that issue.
Of course, I already mentioned the scandal surrounding the national monument to the mission in Afghanistan. We spoke to this at the beginning of the meeting. This is something we all agreed we would undertake to do. They can claim all they want on the other side that we never intended to come up with a decision, that we were just going to discuss it a bit and move on. Come on. Where else in the world and in what other kind of organization would things work that way? It would never fly in the private sector to say we'll have a little discussion about it and then move on; we don't need to make a decision about it. It would never fly anywhere else, and it certainly doesn't fly with veterans.
That's what we should be doing. It hasn't been done, and it needs to be done. We need to get to the bottom of that situation. We need to be working on that.
We can also talk about how the poor treatment of veterans is directly impacting military retention and recruitment. I hear this every single day from veterans. I hear every single day from sitting members of the Canadian Armed Forces about how frustrated they are with the way they're treated, with some of the woke policies of this government and with the fact that veterans, when they get out, are not treated with the respect they deserve. They're not given the benefits they're due. They're constantly facing delays, denials and suggestions that maybe they should consider death.
These are the things that really impact people who are making the decision to serve this country in uniform. They impact those who are currently serving. I hear it every single day, with people saying, “I'm getting out; I'm done. This is just too much. I cannot handle that this government is not showing any respect for either our veterans or our serving members.” We have sitting members of the Canadian Armed Forces, current serving members, who are using food banks and who are homeless. That should never be the case. We need to be addressing that issue.
Of course, there are the effects of the cost of living crisis on veterans, the things we all see and hear about every single day from Canadians across this country, but even more so from veterans. If there was one group of people you would think had a priority when ensuring that we take care of every need and that they have what they require to live their lives, it would be our veterans, those who served this country. They were prepared to put their lives on the line and they did put their lives on the line. They were prepared to lay down their lives for their country. The least their country and their government can do for them following that service is make sure they're there for them and they're willing to provide what they need.
These are all incredibly important issues that we need to be addressing. There have been a lot of meetings wasted in an attempt to cover up for the Prime Minister. It's time that we get down to work. That means meeting over the course of the summer, for five meetings at minimum, I would suggest. We could do even better than that.
That's the motion I move. I hope that it will have the support of all members of this committee. This is an opportunity for the government members to make up for the time they've wasted. This is an opportunity for the NDP and the Bloc to be there on behalf of veterans. We need to know where everyone stands. Are they here to go on vacation with the Prime Minister or are they here to work for veterans? That's what we're going to vote on today.