# Annual Report for the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman



## the 48th regulator (17 Nov 2010)

*Office of the Veterans Ombudsman - Annual Report 2009-2010*


HTML Version

PDF Version


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## Turner (18 Nov 2010)

Whoa that was a lot of reading. But good stuff anyways.


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## Wookilar (19 Nov 2010)

More toned down that I expected from the Col on his last report. No new surprises, which is good.

Very brief, but I supposet that's what it is for.

Wook


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## Rifleman62 (19 Nov 2011)

Mods: Possibly retitled to read  "Office Veterans Ombudsman Annual Report"

Annual Report 2010-2011

One Veteran: A Matter of Fairness

http://www.ombudsman-veterans.gc.ca/reports-rapports/annual-annuel-2010-2011-eng.cfm


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## Rifleman62 (15 Jan 2013)

http://www.ombudsman-veterans.gc.ca/reports-rapports/annual-annuel-2011-2012-eng.cfm

Annual Report 2011-2012

*One Veteran, A matter of Fairness*



> Those who sustain similar illnesses or injuries while serving their country should have access to the same benefits, regardless of the nature of their service and where and when they served.



PDF available to be download.


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## The Bread Guy (4 Nov 2014)

Tabled in the House of Commons yesterday, here it is online for your perusal - a key excerpt for me (highlights mine)....


> .... *I believe that all of the elements are now available to make VAC’s programs and services work, but the system needed to effectively deliver them is not.* It continues to fail some of our Veterans for two reasons. The first is addressed in my Report on the NVC and highlights the shortcomings in three program areas: financial, vocational rehabilitation and assistance, and family support. The second is a complex, multilayered and outdated service delivery process/model.
> 
> Therefore, *since parliamentary committees have recognized that the current way of doing business is not generating the results needed to resolve the problems facing Veterans and their families in Canada today, is it not time that we change our vision of VAC’s service delivery approach? If we start by fixing the clearly identified problems at the front end of the process, we would reduce the effort and cost currently expended to provide the various levels of appeal at the back end of the process. Anything less is a disservice to Veterans and their families as well as to Canadian taxpayers*....


No response from VAC that I can find yet.


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## Rifleman62 (1 Mar 2017)

http://www.ombudsman-veterans.gc.ca/eng/reports/annual/2015-2016

*Office of the Veterans Ombudsman - Annual Report 2015-2016*


The Globe and Mail article related to the report follows. Note the mention of the pending actuarial statement, which will give ammo to the government to not bring back life time pensions.

Below is the first comment to article:



> StewartBrian
> 
> "but the system remains far too complicated"
> 
> that is because the system is there to generate jobs for highly paid bureaucrats who in turn make things more complicated to justify their existence. Cut red tape and staff and boost benefits with the savings



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadian-veterans-are-better-served-now-but-gaps-still-remain-ombudsman/article34169445/

*Canadian veterans are better served now but gaps remain: Ombudsman*

Gloria Galloway - OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail - Published Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017

Successive governments have improved the suite of benefits provided to injured former soldiers but the system remains far too complicated and Ottawa has never spelled out what it wants those benefits to achieve, says the man who has been Veterans Ombudsman for the past seven years.

Guy Parent released a status update this week to highlight federal progress and the failures in meeting the recommendations made by his office since it was established nearly a decade ago.

Of the 57 recommendations – most of them related to the New Veterans Charter that replaced the former Pension Act in 2006 as the regime for compensating injured, disabled and deceased vets – 23 have been fully implemented, one will be completed shortly, and 13 have been tackled in part.

But 20 remain untouched, some of them stemming from the first report of the ombudsman that was written in 2009 by Mr. Parent’s predecessor, Pat Stogran.

Part of the problem, Mr. Parent said in a telephone interview on Tuesday, is that the government is still unsure about what it wants the benefits and services offered to injured and disabled veterans to accomplish.

Does it want to ensure that injured former soldiers are living at or above the poverty line? he asks.

Or does it want to provide them with something comparable to the median Canadian income?

“We have been trying to get the department to look at it, to define outcomes, and then you can have a measurable line that you can say, ‘Is it enough or is it too much?’” Mr. Parent said.

In addition, he said, the entire system has needed streamlining since he took over as Ombudsman.

Today, veterans are still being asked to wait months to get their first pension cheque and to be approved for benefits.

The government has talked about delivering services in a “a veteran-centric way which is not happening right now,” Mr. Parent said.

“It’s still administration-centric, to facilitate the administration. So that needs to be simplified.”

On the list of 20 recommendations that the government has not met, three stand out as priorities, the Ombudsman said.

The first is compensation for family caregivers.

Spouses are sacrificing their careers, their earnings and their lives to take care of injured former military members, but are not eligible for the remuneration that would go to a contracted caregiver who is hired to do the same job.

The second is the fact that there are no retroactive payments for out-of-pocket health services, such as psychological treatments, provided to veterans as they wait to be approved for benefits by Veterans Affairs Canada.

As a result, “some people may not access treatment between the time they apply until they get a decision, so their situation is deteriorating,” Mr. Parent said.

And third, he said, some disabled former veterans who cannot work are still not receiving enough money to meet their needs.

“When I look back six or seven years, I can see movement forward,” Mr. Parent said.

In the next few months his office will release an actuarial statement that compares benefits offered under the New Veterans Charter with those provided by the old Pension Plan and, he said, he expects it to show that the new system is now more generous than the one it replaced.

Sarah McMaster, a spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr, said in an e-mail that, since the Liberal government took office in 2015, it has enacted many of the Ombudsman’s recommendations and it is committed to address those that remain.

The government has introduced several measures to significantly enrich the compensation package, Ms. McMaster said. “Over the past year,” she said, “Veterans Affairs Canada has reviewed its service-delivery model to ensure it is the best it can be for veterans and their families.”

But Mr. Parent said improving the services and benefits to those who have served in uniform will be a constant evolution going forward.

“Military members will go to different missions. There will be different impacts, there will be new technology,” he said “There will always be a need for tweaking the system to make sure that we meet the immediate needs of the veterans.”


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## Lightguns (1 Mar 2017)

Rifleman62 said:
			
		

> http://www.ombudsman-veterans.gc.ca/eng/reports/annual/2015-2016
> 
> *Office of the Veterans Ombudsman - Annual Report 2015-2016*
> 
> ...



Never under estimate the ability of a bureaucracy to fight a rear guard action on any change to an established policy..............


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## The Bread Guy (1 Mar 2017)

Rifleman62 said:
			
		

> http://www.ombudsman-veterans.gc.ca/eng/reports/annual/2015-2016
> 
> *Office of the Veterans Ombudsman - Annual Report 2015-2016*
> 
> ...


Actually, the update the article is based on was issued this week - find attached - with this summary ...


> My goal is to ensure fairness for Veterans. We make recommendations, informed by evidence, to improve the quality of life for Veterans and their families. Today I have posted a status update, on all the recommendations made by my Office since its inception. To date, we have made 57 recommendations and, of these, the Government has fully or partially implemented 37, leaving 20 still to be addressed.
> 
> The Government is making progress addressing Veterans’ issues. For example, some of the announcements in Budget 2016—increasing the Earnings Loss Benefit (ELB) to 90 percent of pre-release salary and increasing the Disability Award to $360 K—will have an impact on the lives of many Veterans and their families.
> 
> ...





			
				Lightguns said:
			
		

> Never under estimate the ability of a bureaucracy to fight a rear guard action on any change to an established policy..............


... no matter what colour the team jerseys.


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