Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to again address the issue of helping Canada's military, RCMP veterans, and their families who struggle with PTSD.
As I noted in my original question, New Democrats acknowledge and welcome more research funding for PTSD diagnosis and treatment and the opening of new operational stress injury clinics. Moreover, the limited progress being made in hiring front-line service workers needs to be addressed.
Nevertheless, the poor service problems plaguing Veterans Affairs Canada remain. In some cases, these problems are getting worse. In a nutshell, that is the real problem. More money is being allocated to solving the problems of veterans with PTSD and other challenges, but the results are not improving.
However, members do not have to take my word for it. If we look at the government's own service standards at Veterans Affairs Canada, they tell the entire story. As of today, the government is meeting just 12 of its 24 self-identified service standards that it promised to meet for veterans and their families. I stress that these standards are self-identified by the current Liberal government.
I think it is important to highlight some of these failures to give the House an idea as to how the government is failing veterans, particularly those suffering from PTSD.
The very first service standard posted on the department's website, and arguably the most important standard, deals with the first point of contact responding to a veteran's call for help. The Liberals' self-identified service standard in this case is pretty straightforward. The expectation is that a veteran, family member or other Canadian who calls the department's national contact centre network can expect their call to be answered by an analyst within two minutes. The service standard for the government is that it will answer 80% of these calls within two minutes. However, as of today, the department is able to answer just 66% of these calls for help in under two minutes.
Imagine a veteran wounded in combat, suffering from PTSD, and possibly in crisis, reaching out for help and being told by a computer that their call is important, and having to wait two, three, four or even 10 minutes to speak with a human working at Veterans Affairs. That may not seem like a big deal to some, but if one is even remotely aware of the symptoms endured by those suffering from PTSD, one would know that this level of service is completely unacceptable.
Looking at the department's excellent website resource on the symptoms of PTSD, we will see that those suffering from PTSD might experience a lack of enthusiasm and difficulties with motivation, excessive worry, feelings of restlessness and being on edge, anger and irritability, and concentration problems. We all know how it feels when we are put on hold for 10 minutes listening to elevator music when we have an urgent issue. Imagine how a veteran suffering with PTSD feels when, perhaps after years of hesitation before finally becoming motivated enough to call their government for help, they are put in some automated queue for what must seem like an eternity.
What about that backlog of 29,000-plus disability benefit claims that are waiting to be processed for those military and police personnel transitioning into civilian life?
There are also another 10 service standards that are not being met by the government, but time does not allow me to detail them all. However, I can assure members that these are numerous and significant, and have a dramatic and negative impact on the health and well-being of veterans afflicted with PTSD and their families who also carry this burden.
What about service dogs for veterans who suffer from PTSD? The government's own sponsored research has shown that these companions can and do alleviate many of the symptoms of PTSD. However, for some reason, the government refuses to provide dogs to those veterans who could benefit so much from them.