Committee Unanimously Makes Recommendations on Veterans Charter

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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MPs from the Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs have put partisanship aside and made a unique move to table a unanimous report on a review of the controversial New Veterans Charter on Tuesday. The report, entitled “The New Veterans Charter: Moving Forward,” makes 14 key recommendations on veterans issues discussed during a series of testimonies from some 55 witnesses that appeared before the committee since November, including the Royal Canadian Legion and Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent.

Several committee members held a press conference on Parliament Hill on Tuesday morning and presented their report. The report most prominently warned the government to refrain from medically discharging soldiers until Veterans Affairs is prepared to ready to provide full support to them and to guarantee financial benefits for life. However, the report left a controversial decision up to the government’s discretion, i.e. a 2006 decision to replace the monthly pension payments system with a “lump sum” that maxes out at $285,000 for the most seriously-injured veterans.

According to the Committee vice-chair and NDP veterans affairs critic, Peter Stoffer, it is up to the government to review the lump sum payment system, as they committee finds it difficult to recommend a specific number or amount that disabled veterans should be entitled to. He alleged that “we do make a recommendation asking the government to look at the disability payment and the amount. We didn’t ask what that amount should be. We just asked the government to look at it in comparison to civil courts in that regard.”