Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of Bill C-61, but I feel there is something left out with regard to Bill C-61 and I wish to address that.
Bill C-61 will allow more veterans to qualify for benefits and it will place them under the War Veterans Allowance Act. We all know that in 1992 the PC party put the merchant navy men under the Civilian War Veterans Allowance Act. However, many things were left out for them over the years.
Look at what the men and women of our army, navy and air force received when they came home from the war, and rightfully so. They received a clothing allowance, rehabilitation grants, transportation to place of enlistment, war service gratuities, re-establishment credit, reinstatement or preference in civilian employment estimate, out of work allowance, education assistance, treatment for pension disability including appliances, Veterans Land Act or housing assistance, business or professional loans and waiting returns allowance. All that at that time would total $30,590.
In addition, veterans were entitled to a number of other benefits, including veterans independence program, prisoner of war benefits, education assistance for children of the war dead, legal assistance for preparation of pension claims and counselling and referrals, and rightfully so.
The above figures are based on the fact that a former member of the merchant navy would be in receipt of either a war disability pension or a war veterans allowance if he did not receive both.
I have met regularly in my riding office with the merchant navy veterans. As members know, many of them were here on the Hill on a hunger strike. I have never seen that happen in Canada with any veterans who felt they had to go to that degree to get the attention of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
After World War II the Canadian government had the task of demobilizing over one million troops. Some of these troops were offered positions within the military, but not the merchant navy men. Others were offered many advantageous opportunities that were not offered to the merchant navy men.
Merchant seaman Ossie MacLean informed me of how he went to the local veterans office to inquire about a business start-up loan after World War II when he was no longer with the merchant navy. He thought he could receive a loan to start his business like the loans being offered to other veterans. When he arrived he was asked for his service number. He gave them his merchant marine number and he was told that he did not qualify for any of the programs.
Mr. MacLean was there when this country needed him yet we failed him when he needed us. Mr. MacLean was one of the merchant navy veterans who stood outside this House on two separate occasions last year on that hunger strike. He was joined by other fine gentlemen, Randy Hope, Ward Duke, Willis Marsolais and Doug McMartin. Together these five brave men drew more attention to their cause in a few weeks than ever before. Now we are at a second reading and these men feel along with their 2,300 surviving shipmates that they deserve a payment from the government once again. Is is possible to do this? Yes, it is.
I know the minister says that we cannot deal with retroactivity. We are saying he does not have to deal with retroactivity but he can deal with these men in manner in which he can give them a grant. With the formula in the Cliff Chadderton report some would get $5,000 for putting their lives on the line and taking over all the goods, ammunition and equipment needed by our men. If they only went on one trip the report said give them $5,000 but some were in the merchant navy during the whole war. All of us know the number of lives lost. One in eight of our merchant navy men lost their lives.
As I was putting my notes together I was thinking about what it must have been like to be on one of those boats. The Germans knew exactly what they were carrying so the Germans were steadily looking for them. Those were the boats the Germans wanted to torpedo. Those were the boats the Germans wanted to get. They knew if we did not get the ammunition and materials over to our forces our forces could not do anything.
It is time for us to take the necessary steps to completely make them equal. Bill C-61 puts them under the War Veterans Allowance Act but this is 1999. What about in 1945? What about in 1939? They were not equal in those days.
In 1992 when the PC government of the day brought in omnibus Bill C-84, it allocated $100 million to be used for benefits to serve our merchant navy veterans. That total was later reduced to $88 million which would still be ample money to cover and offer sufficient benefits to these veterans. But when this government took office for some reason it put that money in general revenue. It was never set aside for what it was intended to do for our merchant navy men. After being put into general revenues the money could never be allocated specifically for the merchant navy. When the minister was at one of the meetings I asked if they could please tell me where the $88 million went. Nobody seems to know.
However, the Department of Veterans Affairs has had surpluses every year between 1992 and 1997. These surpluses have ranged anywhere from $20 million to $154 million. We received this information from the Public Accounts of Canada. The money was there and it is still there today.
Recently the Minister of Veterans Affairs himself has recognized the role of the merchant navy in World War II. Each merchant navy veteran has been forwarded a copy of Valour at Sea . This is a book that was commissioned by veterans affairs to recognize the role of Canada's merchant navy in both world wars and in Korea. The letter that accompanies the book states “It describes the role of Canada's merchant navy in the defence of freedom and democracy”. It also states “The armed forces and the merchant navy helped secure supply routes that sustained Canada's allies in their darkest hours and made possible the liberation of Europe”.
Imagine. The minister has put out a book called Valour at Sea which is beautiful. It really is. And he is stating to our merchant navy men that they helped secure the supply routes that sustained Canada's allies in their darkest hours and made possible the liberation of Europe. Our merchant navy men did that. This letter, as I have stated, was sent by our Minister of Veterans Affairs.
The Canadian merchant navy was considered to be the fourth arm of the armed forces. The odds of dying in the second world war was greater for the merchant navy than for any of our other troops. These men were some of the bravest. They kept our troops supplied on the front lines and they braved the intolerable elements of nature to do so. How many of us today would know what it was like to stand on the bow of a boat loaded with explosives in the middle of winter on the North Atlantic pushing back the ice and the mines and wondering if a German U-boat had us in its sights?
These men know what it was like. They lived it. Mr. Speaker, they lived it for you and for me. We would not be in this House of Commons today, not one of us, not one of the 301 members of parliament and not any of the others that are here, if it was not for those men.
When this bill is referred back to committee for further study, there will be a motion that I put before the committee on November 26 last year. It deals with the issue of a one-time grant payment for the men and women of the merchant navy in lieu of benefits not received after duty to their country.
I put forward the motion, as I stated, on November 26 asking “that the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs recommend that the merchant navy veterans be recognized as war veterans,”—and they are being recognized under Bill C-61—“that they receive prisoner of war benefits”—and that will happen under Bill C-61—“that they receive a one-time payment in lieu of benefits afforded to other veterans of World War II and that they be recognized as veterans on ceremonial days”.
When this bill is referred back, we will once again be dealing with my suspended motion. I trust that all of my colleagues on both sides of the House will agree with it.
It is time to act on behalf of our veterans. Bill C-61 is a piece of legislation that should be passed and we will support it. I know many of our veterans and their widows want to see it passed. Many of these veterans are in their mid to late 70s and approximately 13 die each month in Canada.
I want this House to know that this bill and the motion that I have before the committee should not be deemed as partisan and should not be considered along partisan lines. We should not be partisan when it comes to our veterans.
I join many of my colleagues in congratulating the government in its recent decision to compensate the Hong Kong war veterans for their service to their country. I felt that we should have pressed harder to have the Japanese government recognize these veterans and the unacceptable merciless treatment they endured. But the bottom line is when it came to doing the right thing for the Hong Kong veterans, it was done and I am pleased. The government and the House did the right thing.
There is one other thing I would like to bring to the attention of the House with regard to our veterans.
A lady came to see me. Her husband, a veteran, had died. She thought that we would be paying to bury him. It was not until after the burial that she found out the means test used to be $24,000 just for the veteran but then in 1996 it was reduced to $12,000. That was $12,000 for husband and wife; it used to be $24,000 just for the veteran. They thought that she had too much money. She had $6,000.
I looked at all of her expenses again. I went over to the Department of Veterans Affairs and asked “Do you not take into consideration the expense of the coffin and the funeral and take that from what she had and then tell me she still has $6,000?” In the end the department said that it was wrong and it would pay for his funeral.
I feel very strongly about this. There are so few of them left. For us to lower the means test to $12,000 is an insult to our veterans. We are forgetting the role they played. I sometimes wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that some of the younger people on the Hill do not understand the role the veterans played to save Canada and bring it to what it is today.
I say to the minister that yes my party and I will be supporting Bill C-61. But I am also telling him, and I want it on the record, that I will not go away until the merchant navy men receive some form of recognition through a grant.