Madam Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Calgary Nose Hill.
Canada and Ukraine share a special relationship. The Ukrainian diaspora in Canada is the largest outside Ukraine with more than 1.3 million Canadians claiming some connection to Ukraine.
Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2014, including the illegal annexation of Crimea on March 21, 2014, three years ago tomorrow. Estimates from different sources place the combined military and civilian casualty rate at close to 50,000. Let there be no misunderstanding that the conflict is ongoing and it can only go from bad to worse.
In April 2015, Prime Minister Harper, on behalf of Canada, responded to the deteriorating situation by announcing Canada would deploy approximately 200 Canadian Armed Forces personnel to Ukraine until March 31, 2017. For nearly two years, Canadian troops have been providing training in explosive ordnance disposal, flight safety, logistics system modernization, military policing, and medical training.
After repeated delays and requests from Ukraine's president, Canada has finally extended the mission to Ukraine until March 2019. As far as Canada's participation with this mission is concerned, my first concern has been and always will be for our Canadian soldiers and their families. This is a hot zone. Even before the announcement that Canada was extending the Ukraine mission, Petawawa was already preparing for a summer deployment.
On March 9, the Conservative Party, after months of giving the Prime Minister the opportunity to do the right thing, brought to the attention of Canadians the most recent example of how the Liberal Party devalues the dangers inherent in missions like the one we are debating today. The decision to claw back the danger pay of soldiers on the front line in the war against international terrorism has soldiers asking me if their pay will be cut by not receiving the proper recognition of being in a hot zone.
Soldiers remember being sent to Afghanistan without the proper uniforms. Soldiers remember their comrades from the conflict in Afghanistan who were killed or injured by a roadside bomb because the Liberal Party played politics with air support when it cancelled the helicopter contract. In fact, history repeats itself with the same type of politics being played with the fighter jet replacement. Without the proper strategic airlift to get soldiers off the roads, lives were needlessly sacrificed.
Soldiers are asking what else the Liberals will take away besides their danger pay. What happens when the injured soldier comes home?
I brought the case of Warrant Officer Roger Perreault to the floor of the House. His treatment has been nothing short of scandalous. What about the Roger Perreaults and other soldiers like him who are waiting to receive the critical injury benefits they so deserve? To the soldiers and veterans who are watching this debate, I want them to know I have their back.
As a veteran Conservative member of the Standing Committee on National Defence, I am pleased to confirm that through the defence committee, I have been pushing the government to accept the recommendations of the National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces ombudsman, Gary Walbourne, in the report presented last fall to the Minister of National Defence, “Simplifying the Service Delivery Model for Medically Releasing Members of the Canadian Armed Forces”. Specifically, soldiers need to know that if they are injured and no longer meet the universality of service requirement, the support is there.
Of the many problems that I am called upon to intervene in regarding service in the Canadian Armed Forces, the issues surrounding medical release are the most frustrating, both for releasing soldiers and their families. The need to provide the soldier a seamless transition has become an issue of crisis proportion since Prime Minister Chrétien first committed Canada to the mission in Afghanistan. It is time to move on and do what is right.
The first reform that must take place is to ensure no currently serving member of the Canadian Armed Forces is medically released without all services and benefits in place. Each year approximately 1,500 members of the Canadian Armed Forces are released due to illness or injury, of which about 600 are directly related to military service.
Once released from the Canadian Armed Forces, the soldier becomes the responsibility of Veterans Affairs Canada. Ill and injured members must prove to Veterans Affairs Canada their illness or injury was attributable to or aggravated by their military service. While the Canadian Armed Forces have all the medical and personnel information needed to support a claim, the information systems between the departments are completely independent of one another. Medically releasing soldiers are required to obtain medical and service documents from the Department of National Defence, and then to plead their case to Veterans Affairs.
Once again, I am calling on the government to implement the recommendations given in the report from the military ombudsman.