Here’s what the parties are promising on veterans issues:
Liberals
• invest $15 million a year to build accessible and affordable housing for veterans who need extra help
• establish a new rapid-response service of social workers, case management counsellors and peer-support workers to assist veterans
• give veterans up to $3,000 in free counselling services before a disability claim is required
• automatically approve the most common disability applications, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and arthritis, among others
• give families a tax-free $2,500 benefit every time they relocate, to help with retraining, recertification, and other costs of finding new workGreens
• launch a national review of veterans’ issues and, in the meantime, restore periodic payments to veterans at pre-2006 levels
• repeal a section of the Superannuation Act that denies pensions to surviving spouses of certain workers, including RCMP and veterans, who married after 60
Conservatives
• clear the backlog of veterans’ benefit applications within 24 months
• provide more service dogs to Canadian veterans in their communities
• hold an independent inquiry to provide answers about Canadian Armed Forces members who were administered mefloquine
NDP
• eliminate backlogs and improve service by providing one caseworker for every 25 veterans
• expand the education benefit to more people
• work with community services to end veteran homelessness.
• automatically carry forward all annual lapsed spending in Veterans Affairs to improve services
People’s Party
• reinstate the fair disability pension as previously provided for by the Pension Act; the pension will apply retroactively to 2006 and lump sum payments received since then will be treated as advance payments
• re-emphasize the legislative guarantee of the “benefit of doubt” standard under the Pension Act
