Veterans affairs minister stands firm on record in face of anger, call to resign
Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay is standing firm in the face of anger and frustration at the Liberal government over ongoing delays, backlogs and staff shortages and a call for his resignation.
In an exclusive interview with The Canadian Press, MacAulay said Ottawa is making progress on a number of fronts when it comes to providing better and faster support to veterans after years of complaints and criticism.
That includes hiring hundreds of temporary staff in recent years and awarding a new $570-million contract to an outside organization for the provision of rehabilitations services to ill and injured veterans across the country.
"We have Veterans Affairs up to where it should be," MacAulay said. "And we want to continue to make sure it stays where it should be and to serve veterans in an appropriate manner."
Yet many veterans remain deeply frustrated at ongoing delays, backlogs and staff shortages at Veterans Affairs Canada, which advocates say are adding pain and stress for thousands of former service members already struggling with injuries and illness.
The rehabilitation services contract has also angered the union representing Veterans Affairs employees, which is calling for MacAulay's resignation.
MacAulay, who will represent the government during Friday's Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flies to an international summit in Cambodia, said he has no intention of resigning.
"My job is to do my job," he said. "And that's what I'm going to do and continue to do it."
The Liberal government has been criticized for years for not living up to its promises to ill and injured veterans. That includes its failure to bring back a lifelong disability pension awarded to those in the Second World War and Korea, but not Afghanistan.
More recently, veterans and others have complained about ongoing delays in the processing of disability claims, a longstanding shortage of case managers for those needing extra assistance and insufficient support for families and caregivers.
MacAulay has previously acknowledged that the government needs to do more to ensure veterans receive proper and timely support for illnesses and injuries sustained while in uniform, which he repeated this week.
Yet in the same breath, he cited several figures as evidence that the situation is improving. Those included a reduction in wait times for some types of disability claims and the hiring of hundreds of additional -- mostly temporary-- staff at Veterans Affairs.
"I hope they don't question the progress," he said. "You're fully aware that there has been some substantial progress."
MacAulay also blamed external factors for some of the department's ongoing problems, including a surge in applications for disability benefits and deep staffing cuts under Stephen Harper's Conservative government about a decade ago.
Meanwhile, he defended the contract with Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services, which came into effect this month despite fierce opposition and cries of alarm from the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees.
The government says the contract will help overworked case managers while ensuring veterans have access to a national network of 9,000 psychologists, physiotherapists, social workers and other help across the country.
The Liberals promised in 2015 that the average case manager would have no more than 25 veterans in their caseloads, as many struggled with 40 or more following the Conservative cuts.
The average today still sits closer to 35 when accounting for the dozens of case managers currently off on sick and stress leave, with some still having upwards of 40 or 50, according to the UVAE.
"On the contract itself, (the company) serves 14,000 veterans," MacAulay said. "They have approximately 9,000 medical experts in place across the country to provide the service they need. I don't think it would be very responsible to cancel that contract."
Yet the UVAE alleges the contract will have the opposite effect by adding another layer of bureaucracy with which veterans will have to contend while dramatically changing the role of case managers.
The union has also blasted the department's continued reliance on temporary staff to fix its problems. That issue has also been raised by auditor general Karen Hogan, who is calling for a long-term staffing and funding plan at Veterans Affairs.
The battle between the UVAE and MacAulay came to a head last month when the union wrote to Trudeau asking him to replace MacAulay because its members had lost faith in the minister.
Meanwhile, others are questioning MacAulay's clout at the cabinet table and the Liberal government's interest in veterans given their failure to fix many of the department's longstanding problems.
"Whenever MacAulay speaks, it's always the same thing: 'We think this is the highest priority, we're going to do everything we can,"' said Brian Forbes, executive director of the War Amps and head of the National Council of Veterans Associations, which represents 60 organizations.
"In our humble opinion, all of that is not enough. You've got to make systemic changes."
Asked about the resignation call and his own record, MacAulay cited several more figures about the billions of dollars spent on veterans since the Liberals came to power as well as the recent purchase of land in France to save Juno Beach from development.
"People can assess whether I'm the proper minister or not," he said. "I'm going to continue to do the job that I'm doing the best way I know how in order to make sure we serve veterans."
IN DEPTH
Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power.
'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold
Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties.
'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election
The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it.
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½
BREAKING Batteries of Lebanon walkie-talkies contained PETN explosive, source tells Reuters
The batteries of the walkie-talkies used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that blew up this week were laced with a highly explosive compound known as PETN, a Lebanese source familiar with the device's components told Reuters.
New Federal firearm buyback program has cost $67M, still not collecting guns after 4 years
The federal firearm buyback program has cost taxpayers nearly $67.2 million since it was announced in 2020, but it still hasn't collected a single gun.
No, these viral purple apples don't exist in Saskatchewan
If something looks too good to be true, it might be. That's the message from Saskatchewan horticulturists after customers have come into their stores hoping to buy purple apple trees this month.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including machine-guns
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns.
Cognitive decline reduced by MIND diet, especially for women and Black people, study finds
Following the MIND diet for 10 years produced a small but significant decrease in the risk of developing thinking, concentration and memory problems, a new study found.
Influencer couple denies leaving kids alone on cruise
For most people, dinner on a cruise ship is a time to relax. But when influencer couple Abby and Matt Howard decided to kick back with a dinner à deux, they ended up kicking up a storm.
Thousands of exploding devices in Lebanon trigger a nation that has been on edge for years
Chris Knayzeh was in a town overlooking Lebanon's capital when he heard the rumbling aftershock of the 2020 Beirut port blast. Hundreds of tons of haphazardly stored ammonium nitrates had exploded, killing and injuring thousands of people.
B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.
Local Spotlight
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.
A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.