Mr. Speaker, as the member of Parliament for the great riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke in the upper Ottawa Valley, home to Garrison Petawawa, training ground of the warrior, I am pleased to add my voice to the groundswell of Canadians demanding veterans benefits for veterans and their deserving family members. It is absolutely unbelievable that the current Liberal government cries poverty when it comes to paying out funds that have already been set aside for veterans, but can find $10.5 million to hand out to a confessed soldier murderer. The federal government has no problem paying out funds earmarked for veterans to a convicted cop killer, but denies veterans benefits.
A veteran in Edmonton said, “I was prepared to be killed in action. What I wasn't prepared for, Mr. Prime Minister, is Canada turning its back on me.” The Prime Minister's party response was that veterans are asking for more than he can give them right now. It was appalling. Actually, what veterans are asking for is what the Prime Minister promised them in terms of pain, suffering and incapacity payment. Most if not all veterans who might qualify for such benefits under the Liberal April 2019 election bribe plan will receive less than under the programs that were available from the former Conservative government.
It is sad to see the members for Kanata—Carleton and Orléans, as former Canadian Forces members, supporting their party's decision to refuse to fund worthwhile programs like service dogs for veterans. Study after study has shown service dogs help veterans with PTSD and so much more. Despite all the evidence, which I know from working with veterans and sharing their success stories about service dogs, this cold, callous Prime Minister is out of touch when he claims veterans are asking for too much.
The benefits are real. I led the initiative to have service dogs matched with veterans in Canada. I saw the benefits first-hand when a friend and former soldier's service dog not only assisted him as a seeing-eye dog for his blindness, but sensed and stopped PTSD reactions to sights, smells and sounds. This is a treatment that is drug-free. Despite all the evidence, the Liberal Party still refuses to fund service dogs. That means veterans who need service dogs are forced to rely on the charity of others, since the combined training of the dog and master can cost upward of $40,000. The federal government policy on veterans is that there are veterans funds for terrorists and cop killers and there is no money for veterans. It is shameful. Many may never get their service dogs; others have to wait years. Veterans who put their lives on the line for Canada should not have to wait. It is just not right.
My riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke is home to the Joan D. Bray Veteran Learning Centre at Willis College in Arnprior. The centre, through the financial generosity of college president, Rima Aristocrat, pioneered the veteran-friendly transition program. The program, developed by Willis College Arnprior campus manager Bernard Doyle, with the help of veterans, is a place where changing technology is helping veterans. Its graduates fill key positions in cybersecurity. This is an example of the private sector responding to the needs of veterans. This is not the approach the federal government takes to veterans' needs. What a cruel trick to play on veterans to announce a plan or some other program that few if any quality for, and to spend veterans funds on empty storefronts in government ridings and hope enough time will pass that veterans will forget what they were originally promised.
Budget 2016 marked the beginning of a second Liberal era of darkness for Canada's women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces. In my riding, which includes Garrison Petawawa, Canada's largest army base, we remember the decade of darkness that came after the political decision to scapegoat and disband the Canadian Airborne Regiment and the deep cuts in defence spending that followed that politically motivated decision. The decision to relocate or re-profile, which is Liberal-speak for cut, $8.5 billion in defence allocations in budget 2017 in addition to previous cuts, confirms the worst fears of our women and men in uniform.
Canada's veterans are being told that they should just wait and that tomorrow and the next budget will fix everything. It is the “tomorrow” budget, but tomorrow never comes. It is a false economy to plan on denying veterans benefits with the expectation the veterans will eventually give up fighting for what they are entitled to, or die off from their injuries.
Last year in this House, I posed a question to the Prime Minister on behalf of Warrant Officer Roger Perreault, a veteran in the Canadian Armed Forces, regarding the decision to reward terrorists who maim and kill Canadian soldiers, while denying compensation to soldiers injured in roadside bomb attacks.
Retired Warrant Officer Roger Perreault is an Afghan veteran who served his country honourably. His great-grandfather was an engineer in the First World War. Roger carried his great-grandfather's cap badge for good luck to Afghanistan. In addition to serving in Afghanistan, he served twice in Bosnia and three special duty areas over a span of 27 years. He was medically released from the military in 2017.
Retired Warrant Officer Roger Perreault was injured in 2006 in a blast from an improvised explosive device while serving in Afghanistan. He has had three back surgeries, two hip replacements and other complications. His release was timed to take place two days before the government's fake news announcement that all support programs would be in place for veterans before an injured soldier was discharged from the military. Nothing was in place for Roger and his family.
Now released from the military, retired Warrant Officer Perreault is being denied the critical injury benefit by veterans affairs, being told that, at age 47, his injuries are the result of his body wearing out, ignoring the injuries of the IED blast. Today, veteran Warrant Officer Roger Perreault informs me that the Veterans Review and Appeal Board has denied his appeal of the original decision, which denied him the critical injury benefit he obviously deserves.
What is most appalling about the latest denial is the cavalier dismissal of the attending medical professional's assessment. Attacking the credibility of a doctor who treated Warrant Officer Perreault shows how low the government will stoop to deny a veteran benefits. Attacking a medical professional who treated Roger demonstrates the extremes the government will go to just to deny a veteran help.
The Prime Minister should be ashamed that a Canadian veteran, who sacrificed his health and well-being of his family, is treated in such a shoddy fashion. Retired Warrant Officer Roger Perreault's wife, Fran, remembers his departure every day very clearly because her family would never be the same again. She said:
On Aug. 1, I put one man on that bus. Nov. 3, a different man came home. He looked like my husband. He talked like my husband. But it wasn't my husband. Part of him is still over there somewhere and I don't know if I'll ever get it back.
On the evening of October 7, 2006, while on mission in Afghanistan, Warrant Officer Roger Perreault was on a routine patrol in a LAV III. He had stopped behind another LAV III, and dismounted when a large explosion ripped the left side of the LAV, throwing him to the ground. While at the time Roger considered himself lucky to have survived the explosion, several of his close comrades in arms were not so lucky. Trooper Mark Andrew Wilson of the Royal Canadian Dragoons died that day.
On September 3, 2006, Sergeant Shane Hank Stachnik, from Roger's 2 Combat Engineer Regiment, Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan and Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish of the Royal Canadian Regiment died during a Taliban assault. Roger is haunted by memories of those fallen comrades.
Now, considering the treatment he is receiving from his own government, he is not so sure who was the lucky one. Additional existing and future benefits have highly restrictive criteria. The Liberals have made it so difficult to qualify for the critical injury benefit that, by their own estimates, only six veterans per year will qualify going forward.
Worst of all, a critical injury benefit that would make a real difference in the life of this injured veteran and his family is a pittance in comparison to the $10.5 million paid out to a confessed terrorist who built IEDs as part of his mission to kill Canadian soldiers.
Warrant Officer Perreault and other Afghanistan veterans are the real Canadian heroes. Let us start treating them like heroes.