Mr. Speaker, we stand here today watching the Liberals once again play politics with veterans. Rather than treating our veterans as heroes who served the country, this motion is just the latest action in a string of actions taken by the Liberal government, which treats veterans as pawns for their political ambitions.
In less than a year since the election, the Liberals have made several inexplicable decisions that not only neglect their duties to veterans but also insult veterans. It started with the minister being unable to answer how many veterans had been helped through the flagship programs on homelessness and employment. Despite millions of dollars spent and years of patting themselves on the back, they had no idea if their program was actually doing anything.
The Liberals then decided that they would not provide wreaths for Remembrance Day for cenotaphs across the country. After push-back from the Conservatives, they had to walk that back, but just before Remembrance Day, the Liberals announced more than 4 billion dollars' worth of cuts to veterans' benefits. They refused to answer questions about where those cuts would take place, but we already know that their budget proposes to cut veterans' pensions.
The Liberals sent out more than 100 letters to veterans demanding massive repayment sums because of the department's own negligence and accounting errors, while they simultaneously moved legislation to retroactively change legislative decisions to avoid having to pay back the disabled veterans they have been overcharging for years. The Liberals stand here today, once again using veterans as a pretense for their political goals.
Just last week, half of the Women Veterans Council resigned in protest of the Liberal government's using them for photo ops and virtue signalling, while ignoring them the rest of the time and not allowing them to work for veterans or even have a say with the minister.
Canadians have had enough, and it is time for action. With the budget implementation act, the Liberals snuck in changes to the pension indexing of veterans, meaning that they would receive less money every year to keep up with the rampant inflation that Liberal deficits are costing us. Food inflation, the cost of living and housing are all up, and now veterans' pensions are down.
We have to ask ourselves, what are the Liberals telling veterans? On one hand, they are claiming in this motion that veterans need more service spaces, but on the other hand, they are carrying out the largest cuts to veterans that we have ever seen. On one hand, they are finally acknowledging a cost of living crisis after denying it for years, but on the other hand, they are lowering veterans' pension indexing to give them less every year. The cherry on top is that the Liberals are also using the budget implementation act to retroactively change legislation to avoid a lawsuit representing veterans who were overcharged by VAC for long-term care.
Actions speak much louder than words, and Canadians can see right through the Liberals. Instead of making more empty promises and motions, why do the Liberals not finally start to do right by veterans and reverse their decision to cut veterans' pensions and services?
Perhaps most pertinent to this debate is the fact that veterans in Amherst, Nova Scotia, have clearly expressed their desire for a building there, and they have done so for years now. We now have the Liberal member for that very community introducing a motion for debate which does not call for action to grant the veterans of Amherst what they are asking for. Instead, the motion suggests a study should take place to determine what should be done.
We already know what should be done. We already know what this property needs to be used for. There is no excuse for the games that the Liberals are playing here. It is fully within their authority and their ability as the Government of Canada to facilitate the transfer of that property. Had the motion today called for action, they would have found support on this side of the House.
I know that veterans in Nova Scotia and across Canada will be incredibly disappointed to hear that the government thinks that a motion for a study six months from now is an acceptable answer to a call for action they have been making for years now. This issue comes down solely to political will and priorities, which the government has clearly signalled its disinterest in. The government does not care what becomes of the Amherst Armoury or what becomes of homeless veterans.
For years, I have asked minister after minister in the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs if they know how many homeless veterans there are, and how many homeless veterans that their so-called veterans homelessness program has helped. Every single one of them has not been able to answer. They do not even know how many there are, let alone how many they have helped.
That pattern is as disturbing as it is clear: The Liberals love to talk the talk, but they never walk the walk. Words, promises and platitudes are never acted upon or followed up on. It is easy for them to forget about the cost of their inaction when they are here in Ottawa, spending away the future of Canadians, but for everyday Canadians in proud historic towns like Amherst, the effects of their inaction weigh heavily.
Built in 1915, the Colonel James Layton Ralston Armoury, locally known as the Amherst armoury, housed some of Nova Scotia's finest. Local men signed up at the armoury to serve in World War I and to fight Nazi Germany in World War II.
There were 497 men from Amherst and its surrounding areas who never returned home. Their names are marked on a local cenotaph in the Amherst area. For almost 500 individuals who paid the ultimate price, the Amherst armoury holds dear meaning. What is just a talking point for the Liberals in Ottawa is a living part of the heritage of Amherst, Nova Scotia, and its people, and they deserve action, not empty promises, so let us today renew our calls on the Liberal government to abandon its political games and to commit to the transfer of a historic property like that to the people who deeply care for it.
The motion also asserts that there will be a need for more veteran services due to higher recruitment numbers as a result of policies of the Liberal government. To support this, the Liberals have been happy to parade around a recent report that states that applications to the Canadian Armed Forces have increased by 13% last year.
Once again, we are faced with Liberal misdirection. To begin with, the Auditor General report in November of last year clearly states that the Canadian Armed Forces continually fails to meet its own recruitment goals year over year. Among the reasons cited for this was a cumbersome, bloated and outdated recruiting system. The report rightly points out that most applicants drop out of the process because it can take upwards of a year to get enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces.
If we follow this reasoning, how can the Liberal government be so happy about a 13% increase in applications, when just months ago the Auditor General cited the loss of applications due to a broken recruitment system, which remains unfixed?
Further, the Canadian Armed Forces has also indicated that the 13% figure does not reflect anything to do with the policies of the current government and is a projection it has been making and watching for over four years now. Right off the bat, the very premise that underlies this motion has proven to be false.
In conclusion, it should be stated very clearly that the Liberals have an abhorrent track record when it comes to our veterans. Whether it is changing the minister of veterans affairs every six months or cutting billions from veterans benefits, or whether it is ignoring the veterans who work tirelessly to help their fellow veterans or even offering veterans who are looking for help in living their lives medical assistance in dying instead, the Liberal government has made it very clear that veterans are not its priority.
To any Canadian who is listening today, let me make this as clear as I can. I have served in government before, and the power to transfer a federal property such as the one in Amherst, Nova Scotia, is something the federal government has the mechanisms and the authority to do. All it needs to do is act. Anyone who tells the people of Amherst or anywhere in Canada that this is an issue that needs to be studied in a parliamentary committee or debated over months and months in the House is someone who is not serious about the needs of their constituents or of veterans.
The time for political games with our veterans is over, and the time for action is now.