Finance committee  The Manuge case fell under the mandate of the Minister of National Defence. It was a Department of National Defence issue. It was not a Veterans Affair Canada issue, at all. We were implicated only to the extent that it was the disability pension paid under Veterans Affairs Canad

Finance committee  Given the nature of the question, it's difficult for me to comment on any concerns around precedent setting of a decision of this sort. Obviously, every circumstance is unique in its own case. This bill before the House today is very unique in this context, so it's very difficu

Finance committee  Again, Mr. Chair, that was a decision of the government to make that announcement back on May 29, 2012. The Manuge decision in fact was very explicit in saying that the legislative structure for the offsetting of the disability pension benefit against these particular programs th

Finance committee  I can simply say again that at the time of the announcement, the government noted the fact that there were similarities to our programming with the SISIP programming, in the sense that the new Veterans Charter rehabilitation program and income support benefits that flowed from th

Finance committee  I think what I said was that various options are put forward to ministers when an issue of this sort comes forward.

Finance committee  While I think that may be your assumption, I think my answer to Mr. Cullen was that various options are put forward for consideration in any initiative.

Finance committee  Certainly for your purposes, I think “clawback” would be the equivalent of our term, which would be “offsetting”.

Finance committee  The stopping, yes; in terms of the bill that's before you right now, this will amount to roughly $19.9 million in benefits paid out to veterans who are impacted by this decision. If you recall, the decision to actually stop the offsetting on a go-forward basis, which was made i

Finance committee  The department, in the context of preparing for advice to cabinet, to ministers.... Different costing models were done, yes.

Finance committee  I think it's fair to say that in preparing memorandums to cabinet, various options are offered.

Finance committee  That is correct. The date of May 29, 2012, was the date that the Government of Canada made the announcement that they would cease the offsetting of the disability pension from these three programs. Moving from that date, the common—as you know, it took six months to implement t

Finance committee  Thank you for that question, Mr. Chair. Essentially, choosing that date was a policy decision of government. That was the date, May 29, 2012, that the government announced it would cease the offsetting. The government decided that it would be the appropriate date.

Finance committee  Three programs are impacted by this bill. The war veterans allowance program is a legacy program that would go back to about 1930, at which time offsets would be made. For the new veterans—

Finance committee  I'm not sure I understand the question. Could you repeat the question?

Finance committee  The simple answer to that, Mr. Chair, would be no, not at this time.