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OTTAWA (CP) - Canadian soldiers wounded in combat will no longer suffer the insult and financial injury of having their danger pay prematurely cut off.
The Conservative government announced Friday it will reimburse the operational allowances soldiers lose when they're forced prematurely out of combat zones by injury or illness.
"The new structure means that the brave men and women serving in a theatre of operations will receive financial compensation if their involvement ceases before the end of their rotation period," Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said in a release.
The decision is retroactive to the start of the Canadian military deployment in Kandahar, Afghanistan, at the start of this year.
Under the current military rules, when wounded troops are removed from a combat zone, they lose tax-free operational allowances of more than $1,900 a month. They also forgo the income tax-free status on more than $6,000 in regular pay they enjoy while deployed.
With Afghan casualties mounting, the inequity came to light in October and appeared to catch military brass and the government off guard.
O'Connor and Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, both expressed concern after the family of one wounded soldier publicly told the story of their son being informed while still in hospital in Germany that his pay was being cut.
"This is a kid that may not walk again, we don't know. He could wind up losing one of the legs from infection . . . and they go in and tell him he's not going to get his danger pay," said Bill Hunter, the father of trooper Jeffrey Hunter.
"When does the danger end for him? I don't understand this."
Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who helped raise the alarm on the issue this fall, lauded the Conservative government decision.
"It resolves the concern that was expressed at the outset, that soldiers were being given short shrift for no other reason than they were taking a bullet for the country," said McTeague.
The pay change does not keep the current operational allowances in place for soldiers forced from combat theatres by medical necessity, but instead replaces it with a new allowance of the same monetary value.
The new allowance will continue for the same period of time the soldier was to have been in military theatre, effectively matching the compensation he or she was to receive while in the field.
Article Link
OTTAWA (CP) - Canadian soldiers wounded in combat will no longer suffer the insult and financial injury of having their danger pay prematurely cut off.
The Conservative government announced Friday it will reimburse the operational allowances soldiers lose when they're forced prematurely out of combat zones by injury or illness.
"The new structure means that the brave men and women serving in a theatre of operations will receive financial compensation if their involvement ceases before the end of their rotation period," Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said in a release.
The decision is retroactive to the start of the Canadian military deployment in Kandahar, Afghanistan, at the start of this year.
Under the current military rules, when wounded troops are removed from a combat zone, they lose tax-free operational allowances of more than $1,900 a month. They also forgo the income tax-free status on more than $6,000 in regular pay they enjoy while deployed.
With Afghan casualties mounting, the inequity came to light in October and appeared to catch military brass and the government off guard.
O'Connor and Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, both expressed concern after the family of one wounded soldier publicly told the story of their son being informed while still in hospital in Germany that his pay was being cut.
"This is a kid that may not walk again, we don't know. He could wind up losing one of the legs from infection . . . and they go in and tell him he's not going to get his danger pay," said Bill Hunter, the father of trooper Jeffrey Hunter.
"When does the danger end for him? I don't understand this."
Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who helped raise the alarm on the issue this fall, lauded the Conservative government decision.
"It resolves the concern that was expressed at the outset, that soldiers were being given short shrift for no other reason than they were taking a bullet for the country," said McTeague.
The pay change does not keep the current operational allowances in place for soldiers forced from combat theatres by medical necessity, but instead replaces it with a new allowance of the same monetary value.
The new allowance will continue for the same period of time the soldier was to have been in military theatre, effectively matching the compensation he or she was to receive while in the field.
