Mr. Speaker, I would like to encourage the hon. member for Halifax West, if he gets a chance, to take a more in-depth look at this issue. As he stated just a few moments ago, he is going to get that chance tomorrow at committee starting at 9 a.m.
For example, contrary to some reports, merchant navy veterans were eligible throughout the war for disability pensions for injuries sustained as a consequence of enemy action. At the end of the second world war, merchant navy veterans qualified for most of the post-war benefits provided to armed forces veterans.
What they did not qualify for as a rule were the re-establishment benefits and there was a good reason for that. The reason lay with the fact that the government intended to keep the merchant marine operational. Canada needed experienced mariners and offering incentives to quit the merchant marine was hardly the way to do that.
By 1948 and 1949 it was clear that Canada could not sustain its merchant fleet and layoffs began. Unemployment insurance benefits were available and other benefits were awarded as a consequence of those layoffs, including access to vocational training.
I will add that armed forces veterans did not qualify for unemployment insurance when they were demobilized at the end of the war.
I remind all members of the House that Bill C-61, which deals with issues identified by merchant navy veterans including the transfer of current merchant navy veterans clauses to the main veterans act, received third reading and is now before the Senate.
I also take this opportunity to remind the hon. member for Halifax West that the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs has agreed, as he stated, to consider the question of compensation for past differences in the treatment of merchant navy veterans under the veterans benefit legislation.
The committee will begin its study on the issue tomorrow and I look forward to seeing the hon. member there.