QUESTION PERIOD — National Defence
Processing Time of Veterans' Benefits
June 7, 2022
Honourable senators, my question is also for the government leader in the Senate. Last week’s report from the Auditor General shows that the NDP-Liberal government continues to fail our veterans when it comes to the timely processing of their applications for disability benefits. The Auditor General found that veterans applying for benefits for the first time wait an average of 39 weeks for a decision — more than double the service standard of 16 weeks. The report stated the service standard itself has not been met for seven years. As well, Veterans Affairs Canada doesn’t know if any of the initiatives taken recently to speed up processing have worked or whether they slowed down processing instead.
Leader, why does your government continue to do such a poor job of providing our veterans with the benefits they earned in service to our country?
Thank you for your question. The government welcomes the Auditor General’s report and agrees with the recommendations. The government knows that the current processing times for disability benefits for veterans are unacceptable, and reducing them remains a top priority. That’s why the government has recently invested $140 million to extend its staff working non-stop to reduce the backlog on top of its previous investment of nearly $200 million.
With this investment, the government has reduced the backlog by 50%. There is more work to be done, and the government is committed to doing it. The government is working hard to close the gaps in wait times, for example, for francophone and female veterans. The government is working to improve the quality of data and processes within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP. Reducing wait times for veterans is a top priority. It will continue to be a priority until the backlog is under control.
I’m glad to hear it is a priority. However, leader, the Auditor General found that RCMP veterans wait significantly longer than Canadian Armed Forces veterans for decisions on their applications, with a wait time of 51 weeks versus 37 weeks. Women wait 24% longer than their male counterparts to have their applications processed. As well, francophone veterans, whom you mentioned, wait 21% longer than anglophones.
These ongoing discrepancies between different groups should not come as a surprise to this government. In fact, I raised the long wait for benefits faced by francophone veterans with Minister Petitpas Taylor during Question Period last month.
Will the NDP-Liberal government ever be able to improve service to all veterans, regardless of the group to which they belong, or does your government still believe, as the Prime Minister said in 2018, that veterans are asking for more than the government is able to give?
Thank you for your question. The government has made, is making and will continue to make progress on this issue. For example, as of this moment I’m advised that there is less than a one-week discrepancy between male and female applications. That’s down from a seven-week difference not that long ago.
The government has also improved the discrepancy between anglophone and francophone veterans by seven weeks. There is still a problem. There is still an eight-week difference, which is not acceptable but is down from a high of fifteen weeks.
The government has hired a 30-member francophone team based in Montreal to work solely on processing these claims. They have also increased the hiring of bilingual staff across the country to process these claims and reduce the times. The government, with all of these actions and investments, is seeing real, tangible progress, but there remains work to be done.
