Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O鈥橰egan agrees with the Conservative opposition that it鈥檚 unacceptable that thousands of veterans waited more than a year to have their benefits applications processed.
鈥淣ot acceptable to veterans. Not acceptable to me,鈥� O鈥橰egan told CTV News on Wednesday.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had some significant challenges with backlogs and I鈥檓 reminded of that every time I go to a veterans鈥� town hall,鈥� he added.
Figures show that 3,110 -- or nine per cent -- of the 36,437 applications received by Veterans Affairs in the 2017-18 fiscal year have taken more than a year to be reviewed. Only 15,949 -- 43 per cent -- were processed within the government鈥檚 16-week target.
O鈥橰egan blamed the delay on a 32 per cent increase in disability claims since the Liberals took office in 2015, and the fact that the Conservatives had cut about 1,000 workers from the department.
鈥淚鈥檓 not making any excuses but I am trying to give an explanation as to why,鈥� O鈥橰egan said.
鈥淭hese are benefits and services that these veterans and their families deserve,鈥� he added. 鈥淭hey are owed these benefits and services.鈥�
O鈥橰egan said the government has allocated $42 million over two years to speed up processing but it takes time to hire people, in part because many of the positions require bilingualism. He said 470 front-line staff have already been added.
鈥淲hat we can do is keep doing what we鈥檙e doing, which is keep it a priority, put as many resources there as we possibly can, and hire front line staff as quickly as we can,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also putting a lot of digitization effort behind the scenes so we can get stuff done quicker,鈥� O鈥橰egan added.
Conservative veterans affairs critic Phil McColeman called the numbers 鈥渟hocking鈥� and said they are evidence that the system needs to be 鈥渞eengineered.鈥�
鈥淧erhaps we have a capacity problem,鈥� McColeman told CTV News. 鈥淏ut throwing money at it and just doing that is not sufficient,鈥� he said.
McColeman accused the Liberals of failing to take 鈥渟imple steps鈥� that could speed up the process, like forcing the military to automatically transfer medical records to Veterans Affairs rather than making the department 鈥渟tart from zero.鈥�
鈥淰eterans Affairs has to force that new veteran to get all new medical reports on their situation, a complete new file,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f they could accept (the military records), then you鈥檙e on the road to accepting a claim.鈥�
McColeman said that soldiers have committed to 鈥渕aking the ultimate sacrifice鈥� if need be, and the long waits for benefits are seen 鈥渁s a sign, really, of disrespect.鈥�
