Canada can afford to say yes to veterans
Policy, not staffing, the fix for Veterans Affairs
Over 30,000 Canadian Armed Forces veterans are currently waiting for essential treatments and financial support. Their 40,000 claims remain stuck in a backlog that’s existed for years.
The Minister of Veterans Affairs and the civil service mandarins at Veterans Affairs Canada have promised to hire more staff to reduce the backlog. Opposition parties and the VAC union demand they hire even more new staff.
But more staff is not the answer.
This is a long-standing problem that hiring has never fixed
Canadian veterans can expect to wait months, even years, before a civil service “adjudicator” reviews and processes their claim. On average it takes almost a year from time of claim to approval. That’s a long time to wait when your starving, homeless, disabled or suffering the debilitating effects of service-related mental illness.
The VAC has a long history of following the tried and tested insurance company practice of – “deny all initial claims, then see if they appeal.” If they do, read the claim and make a decision. Not anymore, though, says the agency.
VAC reports that 81.5% of requests for support from veterans were approved “on first application” in the first six months of 2021. About 73% of those refused who then requested a reassessment, were also approved. Finally, of those refused a second time, about 75% were finally approved on “Departmental Review.” The department isn’t entirely clear on how their math works, but if it works the way it seems to, that means almost 99% of applications are eventually approved in one form or another.
Many of these veterans fought for Canada in Afghanistan, Korea or on other overseas military missions. Despite being called “peacekeeping” to satisfy Canada’s squeamish self-image, these mission often involved fighting. While “peacekeeping” in Cyprus, the (now defunct) Canadian Airborne Regiment defended the Nicosia airport against invading Turkish Army soldiers. On the “peacekeeping” mission in Croatia, 2 PPCLI fought a pitched battle at Medek Pocket that most Canadians have never heard of. All this to say, Canada’s veterans earned every benefit they’re entitled to from VAC. One Canadian “peacekeeper” was killed when his UN-observation post was shelled by artillery from one of the belligerent forces – “by mistake.”
A couple years ago, the federal government hired 560 temporary “adjudicators” to assess what was then more than 50,000 applications in the backlog. They whittled it down a bit, but the backlog remains. Canada’s new Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay has promised to hire even more staff to process claims. He has not, however, said how many, nor when.
But, a veteran’s struggle with VAC doesn’t end when her application is approved. It can be difficult to work with ministry “case managers” who help them access treatment and benefits.
The union representing VAC employees wants the government to establish a benchmark standard for caseworkers – their goal is to reduce the problem to simple arithmetic in a way that ensures they get more card-carrying, dues-paying union members. Remember, the union’s job is not to help veterans: it’s to help union members. Nothing wrong with that as long as we all know who they’re working for – not the veterans.
The Liberals promised to hire more case managers so each would “manage” just 25 veterans. That hasn’t happened. Nor, is it likely to fix the problem.
Workload isn’t the core problem at VAC – Policy is
When they were in uniform, we trusted these veterans – literally – with the lives of our soldiers, sailor and aviators. We trusted them to handle lethal weapons. To make life or death decisions. To apply and manage violence for our political gain. That is what soldiers do.
Commissioned officers, in particular, are given a document, signed by the Queen or her Governor General attesting to their “especial Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty, Courage and Integrity…” (my italics)
Non-commissioned officers and other ranks in the military are every bit as trustworthy as their commissioned comrades, even without the paperwork. They proved and re-proved this every single day of their service careers.
Consider: The Queen trusted them on Tuesday at 10 o’clock in the morning to act always with integrity and be deserving of trust. Twenty-four hours later, on Wednesday, after they’ve turned in their uniforms and equipment, handed in their ID card and been released from the military – how have they changed?
Why don’t we trust them now?
Soldiers shape their self-image around being the last line of defence. When the situation is dire and prospects are dim, when police and other emergency services cannot manage things, you call the military. And they come to the rescue. They cannot fail. They’re the heroes.
They are not comfortable being victims. So much so, they rarely ask for help. When they do, it’s only after exhausting every other alternative and coming to grips with the difficult realization: they are not impervious to need.
Approaching Veterans Affairs Canada is a humbling and embarrassing experience for many veterans. It shouldn’t be, but it often represents the final admission they are no longer “the rescuer.” Very few veterans would ever ask for help they do not desperately need. It’s not in their nature.
We don’t need more bureaucrats to judge our veterans. We need to trust our veterans.
So, why don’t we just extend the trust we’ve always had in these men and women upon whom we once depended? They’re exactly the same people. And, they’re only asking for what we promised to give them if they served us.
The fix is easy, cost-effective and quick
A practical approach to managing VAC claims would trust-based. Stop assuming every veteran is a cheat. Start assuming they’re the same honest, trustworthy women and men they’ve always been.
Every application from every veteran should be approved as soon as it is received.
For the 40,000 applications already in the backlog – approve them right now. Get the benefits, financial supports and treatments flowing to these deserving men and women immediately. As in RIGHT NOW.
And keep doing so for every new application that comes in. Never a backlog again!
Then, let the comfortable civil-service bean counters, in their cozy office cubbyholes, who’ve never left Canada, or slept outside in the rain on a shell-pocked muddy hill, or been shot at by an enemy, or applied a tourniquet around the charred stump of their own leg after it’s been blown off by a landmine, or held their closest friend to their chest weeping as she bled out on foreign soil, spot-check the applications for entitlement.
I’m willing to bet the cases of false-applications will be near zero. By God, if there is any group of citizens in this country who is entitled to whatever we can give them, it’s our veterans.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a “service-related” need.
Veterans shouldn’t have to prove their need is “service-related.” For all but the most obvious traumatic physical injuries, that’s all but impossible. Not only should VAC assume every need from every veteran is service-related, the government shouldn’t care. If this woman served her country, what do I care if her depression and anxiety later in life, or her back pain, or her diabetes, or cancer, or Alzheimers is service-related? We owe her.
Whether it’s VAC or a provincial health ministry footing the bill for a veteran’s healthcare, it’s the same taxpayer – and the same debt of gratitude. Make it easy. Help the veteran at the first point of contact. Full stop.
As a government agency that routinely fails to spend anywhere near its budgeted allocation of funds on veterans welfare ($105 million unspent in 2020, $1.1 billion unspent between 2006 and 2014) – VAC can afford to do more. The risk of fraud is minuscule. The opportunity to help people we owe the most, is massive.
But don’t spend a penny more on additional civil servants. Spend every penny – and more – directly on veterans’ care and support.
This could happen right now – All it would take is a nod from the minister
We took exactly this approach during the pandemic for emergency benefits with people we know nothing about. Why wouldn’t we take this small risk with people we knew everything about and trusted implicitly with the lives of our sons and daughters?
If they don’t deserve our trust, who does?
Would you support a “just say yes” policy to help our veterans?
There is no doubt this is the right approach. But leadership comes from the top, and the leader at the top has no understanding of this, not having served and not caring.
Thanks for sharing this and I'm in complete agreement with you. I'm going to forward it to my MP.