Mr. Speaker, as I rise today for this debate, there are a lot of things I could say, but what I would like to focus on, at least in the initial part of my remarks, is what is at heart here. Sometimes what happens in this place when we debate issues is that some members lose sight of what exactly is at the heart of the matter. It is not just, as in this case, a privilege motion. It is not even just about a scandal. What we are talking about, at least in my view, is $400 million of taxpayers' money. It is important that we remember that. It is something we should always have at the very top of our minds when we are looking at issues in the House, whether it is a matter like this of privilege, the litany of scandals of the Liberal government, government legislation or any legislation for that matter. We should always be mindful of who pays for all of this, and it is the taxpayer.
In this case, at the heart of the matter is $400 million of taxpayers' money that has been forcibly removed from their wallets. That is the reality of the situation. Anytime a taxpayer sends their hard-earned money to Ottawa to the CRA, or what I refer to as the place where people's tax dollars go to die, the money is being forcibly removed from their wallets. They do not have a choice in the matter. They have to pay tax dollars, whether they like it or not and whether they think they are being used wisely or not.
I hear from a lot of my constituents, and a lot of people from all across this country when I am out in different parts of it, about their feeling that their money is not being used even remotely close to wisely by the current government. There is a lot of frustration in this country about the fact that people see their money being treated like it is some kind of personal slush fund for the Prime Minister, his friends and Liberal members of Parliament and their friends.
I can understand why people would be frustrated about that. They work incredibly hard for this money. There are many people across this country who strap on their work boots, throw on a hard hat and get their hands dirty. They do it for long hours, and in some cases it is back-breaking. Then they watch their money get forcibly removed from their wallet and sent to Ottawa, to be used as some kind of private, personal slush fund for Liberals.
It has to be tough some days when the alarm clock goes off at 5:30 in the morning. Maybe someone was out with their buddies a little late the night before, maybe had a beer league hockey game or something and only managed to get a few hours of sleep. They have to get out of bed, and then they realize they are going to work until probably two o'clock in the afternoon, just for the government to take all of that money. Then after two o'clock comes, maybe they work until six or seven o'clock, working hard on a construction crew or something, and that is the part of the money they get to take home to their family. All of the other stuff they got out of bed at 5:30 in the morning for until sometime early in the afternoon is sent to Ottawa so that these guys over here, these Liberals, can give it out to their friends.
This is exactly what we are talking about when we talk about this green slush fund. It is $400 million of the money those people have worked hard for, doing back-breaking work, to try to provide for their families. Instead, it has gone to Liberal insiders. It is important to have that in mind, and it is important to have some context around that.
I would like to get to that, but first, as I mentioned, people are paying taxes and sending dollars against their will to a government that wastes them. Ten days ago, every single Canadian, I hope, spent some time remembering and commemorating the sacrifice and service of the men and women who serve this country in our Canadian Armed Forces. When we talk about having to do hard work, there is no one in this country who not only works harder but also makes more sacrifices and puts more on the line than they do.
On November 11, I hope we all paused in remembrance. I love that we do that as a country and I love that in the lead-up to that day, there is now Veterans Week and Indigenous Veterans Day. These are all opportunities for us to commemorate and remember veterans' service and sacrifice, but it is something we should do 365 days of the year. Veterans have sacrificed so we all in the chamber can have the opportunity to stand and debate issues like we are doing right now and so we can represent our fellow community members here in Parliament. There is huge gravity that goes with that, and it would be good for some members to remember that.
When we talk about issues like the one we are talking about today, a slush fund for Liberal insiders, that is not what men and women in service sacrificed for. They sacrificed so we could all come here and try our best to better our communities, our provinces and our country, and to do things we believe are in the best interests of Canadians to try to make their lives a little better and a little easier, and to provide hope and opportunity.
That is the kind of thing we should be debating; however, there has not been much of that in the last nine years. In fact, I do not think there has been any of it. There have been people who have come here to enrich their friends and have forgotten about the taxpayer I talked about, who gets up and packs their lunch in a plastic bag and goes to work for 12-hour to 14-hour days doing backbreaking work. The very epitome of that, of course, is the men and women who serve in our Canadian Forces.
Service members are asked to go to places in the world that, in some cases, they may never even have heard of before to defend the freedoms of people they do not know. When they do that, all they ask in return is that we do our best to ensure that those freedoms are protected and to ensure that we use our democracy to make sure there are the opportunities and the security we talked about. Instead what they have received over the last nine years is a government that, following the Prime Minister's lead, just looks for what is in it for them. What can they do to enrich their friends?
The SDTC fund is an example of that. In some cases, the $400 million went to companies that SDTC board members were involved in personally. If we look up “conflict of interest” in the dictionary, the board would be pictured there. That is not right. That is not what this is supposed to be about. The men and women who served our country just wanted us to show them good government.
On top of all that, imagine what we could have done for our veterans and their families with the $400 million. I have a number of other examples that I want to share with the House in a moment, of what could have been done with the $400 million had it not been spent to enrich the personal interests of people who were involved. Imagine, just for a second, what we could have done for our veterans and their families.
As the Conservative shadow minister for veterans affairs, I hear heartbreaking stories every single day from veterans, from their families and from the families they have left behind in some cases, of just a complete and utter lack of support. I have often heard this referred to, by veterans and their families many times, as a triple-D policy. The policy entails delays and denials, and the third D stands for “die”.
There are long delays in trying to get the benefits or services that veterans and their families are entitled to by virtue of the service they gave this country. They deserve the benefits and services. It is the least we can do. However, they face not weeks or months of delays, but we are literally talking years of delays. I hear every single day from veterans who have waited years.
I would like everyone to stop and let that sink in. Veterans served this country. Then they come back home and want to be able to get on with their life after a transition out of the Canadian Armed Forces. There are things they need in order to be able to do that. There are benefits and services they are entitled to, that they have earned, in some cases with their blood, but they wait years and cannot get those benefits. That is absolutely ridiculous.
In some cases, veterans are denied over and over again, and they have to fight tooth and nail. They fought for this country. They should not have to come back and fight with the government to get what they deserve. That is what they have to do, and it becomes so difficult. In some cases, this is where the third D comes in. Many veterans tell me they believe it is actually intentional and there is an effort to try to delay and deny for so long that a veteran will give up. They will lose all hope.
It does not matter whether that is actually what happens or not. If it is the perception a veteran has, and many of them do have it, then it is the reality. It is not right and it absolutely must be fixed. We have lost far too many veterans. Too many veterans end up homeless in this country. Veterans are using food banks to such a level that some veterans association food banks are telling me that they actually are having trouble keeping the shelves stocked to be able to help our veterans.
We should never even be uttering those things in the same sentence. The idea of a homeless veteran should not exist. The idea of a veteran using a food bank should not exist. The idea that a veteran has to give up hope because they have fought with their government for years for something that they fought for and deserve should not exist. It should be simple. The effort should be to try to make sure we are there and to make it easy for them.
Instead, I hear stories every day of veterans being asked to prove something. For example, I heard the story of someone having lost two legs because of a roadside bomb, and then they have had to prove every single year that they are still missing limbs. That is just one example of many I have heard. Veterans fought for this country. They literally gave life and limb for this country. The injured ones then have to fight to prove they were injured serving this country.
I might have the figures slightly wrong, but they would not be off by much. The Veterans Review and Appeal Board is an agency to which veterans who have gone through all of the possible different channels can take an appeal. I have heard many times that on certain types of claims, the Veterans Review and Appeal Board often ends up, if the veteran persists long enough and fights long enough to get there, approving well over 90% of the claims at that level. Why did it have to take years of fighting with the government to get there? Why could we not approve the claims and let veterans have what they need to move on with life?
On top of it all, I could get into the fact that situations come up in this country where, in the last few years under the Liberal government, veterans have come looking for help to live their life. The words that have been used by officials at Veterans Affairs to veterans are that if living their life is so hard they could offer them assisted death. That has actually happened; I have heard it from a number of veterans. I have heard of cases like this numerous times. It causes what is called sanctuary trauma, where the institution that is supposed to help someone actually causes more trauma.
I was talking to a veteran last week who told me that his wife knows before he even tells her when he has been on the phone with Veterans Affairs, because he is agitated. He said that the worst days he has are the days he has to talk to Veterans Affairs on the phone. Before she even asks him whether he has been talking to Veterans Affairs, she knows the answer, because it affects him that badly. I can only imagine what a veteran like that, after all of that, must think when they hear about stuff like the SDTC fund on top of it.
The government is fighting tooth and nail to ensure that it does not pay out benefits to a veteran who has earned them. Then $400 million is given to its friends through a green slush fund. Can members imagine what that must feel like to a veteran who has fought for years, and in some cases has had to take the government to court, to get what they are entitled to? I think it is important we remember that.
I have heard Liberal members talk about the fact that they feel like the debate is a big waste of time and that we should be doing all these other things here, and so on. I do not disagree; it would be nice to be doing those things. However, at the end of the day, the heart of the matter is about the $400 million that was forcibly removed from the pockets of taxpayers and given out to their friends, Liberal insiders.
Veterans have had to scratch and claw to try to get what they have coming to them, what they deserve and what they are owed by virtue of the service they gave to this country. Then they watch the Liberals steal it for their friends. I can only imagine how horrible that must make a veteran feel. It is disgraceful and shameful.