July 31, 2018 - Ottawa, ON
As the Veterans Ombudsman I am committed to advocating for the fair treatment of all Veterans and their families. I work to ensure that adequate benefits are available, that these benefits are sufficient to meet needs, and that benefits are quickly and easily accessible. Through the evidence-based research of my office, I inform discussion, encourage debate, make recommendations for improvement, and monitor progress.
Today I am posting a Report Card of all of the recommendations made by my office since 2008. This updates my February 2017 Report Card where I noted that 37 of 57 recommendations had been addressed.
Since my 2017 status update, I have added 17 recommendations to the report
card, bringing the total number to 74. The Government has addressed 46 of these, either fully or partially, and in reviewing all recommendations made since 2008, I have determined that 10 are no longer relevant or were overtaken by events, leaving 18 still to be addressed. So the final score is 46 / 64 recommendations addressed.
While progress has been made since my update last year, I am still concerned about a few areas. Of the 18 recommendations yet to be addressed, among the most important from my perspective are the following:
- ensure that the reimbursement of treatment expenses under the Veterans Well-being Act is retroactive to the date of the original application, as it is under the Pension Act.
- amend the Veterans Well-being Act to permit a single Canadian Armed Forces member with no dependent children to designate a family member to apply for and receive the Death Benefit.
- provide the same access to the Treasury Board Pensioner Dental Service Plan as provided by VAC under the Public Service Health Care Plan.
I encourage you to look at the Report Card, grouped according to 5 themes: Financial Security; Transition Planning and Preparedness; Finding Purpose; Health Care & Support; and Service Experience.