Mr. Speaker, the government's record on veterans affairs can be summarized as frothy promises mixed with flat results.
The government broke its promise to give VIP services to all widows and, in the last two years, only added 5,000 survivors to the program. In the last two years of the Liberal government, we added 20,000 without fanfare.
The government excluded allied veterans from the VIP in three budgets while criticizing a decade-old decision to do the same thing. It announced a Veterans Bill of Rights that had no bill, no legislation and absolutely no new rights.
On agent orange, after two years of delay, about 3% of those it promised to compensate will see any money.
However, the government followed through on the New Veterans Charter passed in 2005 and opened new OSI clinics in Calgary and Fredericton, also announced that year.
I feel that veterans deserve a government that exceeds expectations the way veterans did for their government.