# Flurry of announcements on veteran and casualty support topics



## The Bread Guy (13 Mar 2015)

A couple of official announcements coming up today ....

"Minister Jason Kenney to Announce New Veterans' Benefit"
"Ministers O'Toole & MacKay to make important announcement to benefit part-time Reserve Force Veterans"
.... and a couple of stories attributed to "federal sources" and "sources" respectively:

"A class-action lawsuit launched by dissatisfied Afghan veterans is on hold because settlement talks are underway, The Canadian Press has learned ...."
"After death of Cpl. Cirillo, feds to extend benefits to injured reservists"

Let the info-machine roll, baby!


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## dogger1936 (13 Mar 2015)

Fingers crossed this is all good news and fill's some gaps in the NVC.


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## The Bread Guy (14 Mar 2015)

From the Minister's Info-machine:


> The Honourable Erin O’Toole, Minister of Veterans Affairs, and the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced part-time Reserve Force Veterans will have the support they deserve, honouring a pledge made by the Government of Canada. The ministers were joined by Member of Parliament Scott Armstrong and the Veterans Ombudsman, Guy Parent.
> 
> Today’s announcement focused on the Veterans Affairs Canada’s (VAC) Earnings Loss (EL) Benefit, which provides income support for Veterans with service-related injuries while they are participating in VAC’s Rehabilitation Program or who are unable to be suitably employed.
> 
> ...


More in the Backgrounder:


> *Respect for reservists ¿ Enhancing benefits for Reserve Force Veterans*
> 
> The New Veterans Charter (NVC) was designed to meet the needs of today’s Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), including members of the Regular and Reserve Forces. It was created to help Veterans and their families.
> 
> ...


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## McG (17 Mar 2015)

There should be more announcements coming now on the topics of veteran care-giver benefits and of severely disabled compensation.



> Ottawa set to beef up benefits for disabled vets, families
> Gloria Galloway
> Globe and Mail
> 17 Mar 2015
> ...


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## McG (22 Apr 2015)

Have the recent announcments improved relations between veterans and the government.  At least one news article headline suggests as much.



> *Tenuous truce between veterans, department
> 5 Things to know*
> The Canadian Press
> National Post
> ...


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## Teager (27 Jun 2015)

This is the most recent progress report that Minister O'Toole has put out.


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## The Bread Guy (30 Jul 2015)

In addition to announcements saying mo' staff will be added (rehired?) in some areas, there's a new commitment to make letters. forms & other documents easier to understand:


> The Honourable Erin O’Toole, Minister of Veterans Affairs, today provided an update on the progress made by the Department’s Veteran-centric Communications Task Force to improve how Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) communicates with Veterans and their families. The Task Force was created to find ways to reduce the administrative paperwork burden for our Veterans and to ensure all letters and forms are easy to understand and necessary.
> 
> The task force was mandated to look at each and every form and letter we use to communicate with our Veterans and ask:
> 
> ...


Good to see, but would this have been so hard to do, say, at the beginning of a majority mandate?


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