Madam Chair, it is a great privilege to be part of the debate this evening and I thank all parties for agreeing to have this special take note debate.
I will begin by talking about the fact that I have had three careers in my life. I began as an accountant, and was probably less than successful at that. I spent over 24 years as a minister in the United Church, and since, I have become a member of this House of Commons. Of all the work that I have done, probably being the critic for Veterans Affairs has been the most meaningful and some of the most important work I have done in my whole life. I thank my leader and my colleagues for supporting me in that work and I am very pleased that the hon. member for Etobicoke North has continued on in that work.
It is not easy to be an opposition member at the best of times and it is often quite difficult to take on those issues and not create some animosity. However, I want to begin tonight by telling the hon. members across that in this House I do not in any way doubt people's sincerity, people's concern or people's willingness to engage in this debate and in the issues that affect the men and women of our Canadian Forces as they have left the forces, as they have suffered injuries and as they continue in their lives.
A year ago last fall, I was part of a delegation that was led by the then minister, the member for New Brunswick Southwest. He was a most gracious delegation leader as we visited the route of the Italian campaign of World War II. We went from battle site to battle site and looked at the memorials that were part of that Canadian heritage. I was changed as a result of that trip.
I was moved and when I came home, I spent a great deal of time talking to my father who had served in World War II in the Royal Canadian Air Force, not in Italy, but nonetheless had had friends who had served there. I heard stories, but probably the most important part of that trip was in Ortona. There is a sculpture in Ortona called The Price of Peace, a Canadian monument that has been erected to honour the sacrifice of Canadian soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation and freedom of Italy in World War II.
The minister led a very moving ceremony where we laid wreaths and honoured those who had died and also those who had given of themselves in that battle. Very strangely, though, as we sang the national anthem and did the various things that were part of that ceremony, I noticed lurking in the background two young men wearing Canadian flags on their outfits. They were two young soldiers who were Seaforth Highlanders, named Matt Swanston and Kyle Yorsten.
Matt and Kyle were on their three week leave from active duty in Afghanistan and were following the route that we were following. They were following the route of the Seaforth Highlanders, particularly some of their comrades who had given their lives and who had actually received the Victoria Cross. They did not know that we would be there doing a special ceremony.
They were at the edge of the group and there was a person that I wanted them to meet. Her name was Francesca. She was a person who had laid a red flower at that monument every day. As a young girl, she had been liberated by Canadian soldiers. She had been given her freedom by them and her response was one of gratitude and one of love as she laid a flower at that memorial every day. I wanted Kyle and Matt to meet her because they were looking at their own lives in Afghanistan, and she told them that there would one day be a little girl in Afghanistan who, 65 years later, would give thanks for Canadians for their service in Afghanistan.
Every day since then, as I have heard about another death or profound injury in Afghanistan, I have been concerned that it was either Matt or Kyle. It was a special relationship and they have become my pen pals. They are no longer in the theatre of war. As reservists they are home and back at school and work, but they have been for me a touchstone of what it is to fight in the Canadian Forces for the causes in which we believe in this House.
Their return to Canada, as with so many men and women of the Canadian Forces, is not an easy job. Some of our men and women will return with life-changing injuries, such as the loss of limbs or other permanent physical impairments. Others will come home with invisible injuries. Post-traumatic stress disorder affects as many as one in five Afghan veterans. All of them, regardless of physical or invisible injuries, will return with the challenge of re-entry into civilian life or deployment to non-combat roles in the military. None of them will escape these challenges.
Canadians need a new conversation about our care and compassion for the men and women who put their lives on the line for the safety of Canadians and for the future of democracy in this world. This conversation is long overdue.
Since the end of the Korean War, Canada has continued to produce veterans but many have gone unrecognized. Cyprus, Bosnia and Rwanda are only three of the more prominent operations that have left their mark on Canadian Forces personnel, prior to Afghanistan. One can only imagine the toll that was taken on military personnel even as they provided disaster relief in Haiti. No one comes back untouched. Many come back scarred. That is why Liberals have wanted, over the past year, to hear the stories of veterans.
The government side is fond of saying that we are new to this conversation. I do not think that is fair but it is true that we have engaged in a new way in the last couple of years with a new understanding of what it means to be a veteran in this country.
This last year, while the Conservatives took an extended vacation, Liberals were working on Parliament Hill hosting a series of round tables. One of those round tables was for veterans. In fact, it was a very early one. Experts representing veterans associations, mental health research, occupational therapists and others who are dealing with the profound effects of combat and military service spoke to us. Their focus was largely on the new veterans charter, PTSD and the Afghanistan war vets.
What we heard gave us a new agenda, new ideas, a new vision and a new willingness to act in solidarity with the men and women of the Canadian Forces and the veterans for years to come.
The 2006 new veterans charter was meant to modernize our approach, both as traditional veterans age and as modern veterans evolve. Veterans groups that signed on to that charter did so with the understanding that the charter would be constantly reviewed. That promise has not been kept by the government. It has failed to act significantly on many of the problems that have been identified with the new veterans charter. That charter was brought into this House with all party support and with the knowledge that it had to be constantly reviewed and changed. The promise was to constantly reconsider benefits, especially the lump sum benefits made to disabled veterans, both for adequacy and appropriateness.
To keep that promise means to keep investing in research and clinical capacity for PTSD. To keep that promise means cutting bureaucratic red tape that plagues both traditional and modern vets. To keep that promise means to come to grips with disproportionate suicide rates, homelessness and incarceration of young veterans.
If we expect young men like Matt and Kyle and other young men and women to give it their all in the combat theatre, we owe them the assurance that they will be cared for when they get home.
Recent comments by the Minister of Veterans Affairs musing about the shrinking of his department as our elderly veterans gradually pass away have raised much concern among traditional veterans but have also perplexed new veterans who served during the cold war or are serving today in Afghanistan.
The minister's remarks are seen as opportunity to save money, at t least that is the impression that we have been given.
We are seeing this as an opportunity to engage more fully the community of Canadian veterans who need our service. It means that we need to engage more fully in the programs and needs that they have, which means that we need to look at new options around compensation, around benefits and around the kinds of programs that maybe we need to have some creative creativity about, some imagination to explore new ideas.
This is not a way of saying that the public servants in Charlottetown are not working hard enough. It is simply to say that they need to have a new vision of the way they are working. The climate has changed, the context has changed and bureaucracies are slow to move.
Tonight I want to encourage the government to keep doing that, not to get defensive about what it has already done, not to defend the fact that it is spending more money on programs that probably were already going to increase simply by the nature of the injuries that are being sustained, but to commit to re-visioning the covenant that we have with Canadian men and women who have served in the Canadian Forces.
We are ready to engage, we are willing to work together, we want to do the best thing possible for all Canadian veterans and we want to encourage the government to make this its issue as much as it is our issue.