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Veterans have expressed frustration with the government in the wake of the resignation of Jody Wilson-Raybould.
She was the third veterans affairs minister to leave the department in as many years after she quit following the publication of a story claiming the Prime Minister’s Office had pressured her to intervene in a criminal case against SNC-Lavalin.
The Liberals went out of their way during the last federal election to court former service members.
Justin Trudeau promised to improve service delivery and reinstate a lifelong disability pension for veterans after years of Conservative cuts and inaction.
Since then, the Liberals have made little headway on improving service delivery and breaking their pension promise.
“Our key concern is there’s been a betrayal of the commitment that the prime minister made in the election of 2015,” said Brian Forbes, chair of the National Council of Veterans Associations, which represents more than 60 veteran groups.
“That is felt very strongly in the veterans’ community.”
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has added responsibility for veterans to his duties, but only temporarily.
“It’s like the veterans are the last priority in this story,” said Aaron Bedard, an Afghan War veteran from B.C. who led an unsuccessful legal battle against the government to reinstate the old disability pension.
“We don’t have a minister of veterans affairs anymore.”
Even before Wilson-Raybould’s departure, some veterans and veterans’ groups had questioned the number of ministers who have handled the portfolio under the Liberals — and what that says about their importance to the government.
Not that the trend has been unique to the Liberals; all told, there have been seven veterans-affairs ministers in the past decade, not counting Sajjan. The Conservatives had three in less than two years, leading up to the last election.
That in itself creates difficulties, says Scott Maxwell, executive director of Wounded Warriors Canada, which helps former service members with mental-health injuries, because new ministers take time to find their footing.
“It just makes it difficult to get the work done,” Maxwell said in an interview earlier this month, before Wilson-Raybould’s resignation. “That’s something we’ve tracked as a barrier.”
Others still remember the deep cuts to frontline work at Veterans Affairs Canada that were imposed by Stephen Harper’s government and the Conservatives’ refusal to reinstate the disability pension after a decade in power.
“The (veterans-affairs) file has been mismanaged for a decade or more,” said Nova Scotia veteran David MacLeod, who was forced to leave the military in 2010 for medical reasons.
“Based on mismanagement alone, I will not be supporting any of the major political parties in the coming election. I support one of the smaller parties or a credible independent candidate.”
With files from the Canadian Press
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