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"Ontario’s veterans’ fund turns younger vets away ..."

The Bread Guy

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It's not just federal vets' programming needing some adjustment ...
The Ontario Soldiers’ Aid Commission, the province’s emergency grant program for veterans, turns away veterans of recent conflicts while returning most of its budget unspent every year to the government, Global News has learned.

The provincial law it works under was last updated in 1970 and doesn’t let it give money to veterans of any conflict more recent than Korea. So while veterans of more recent wars often ask the volunteer board for help, none can be given grants.

The Soldiers’ Aid Commission, Canada’s only provincial veterans’ program, can grant veterans up to $2,000 to deal with emergencies such as rent payments, home repairs or moving costs. For veterans who qualify, it has filled a gap, since Veterans Affairs Canada until recently didn’t provide one-off payments to meet specific needs.

The vast majority of veterans who do qualify are given the money they ask for. But over 60 per cent of the commission’s $253,000 budget goes unspent for lack of qualified applicants, heavily censored documents released to Global News under access-to-information laws show.

(...)

The documents show that the SAC is keeping a tally of how many younger veterans are applying for grants they can’t legally be given and must be turned away.

We asked Ontario’s social services ministry, which runs the program, for these statistics, but they refused to provide them. It would also not provide copies of two mandate reviews of the program carried out in 2002 and 2015, telling Global News that finding them would involve “an extended amount of manual work.”

Of the veterans Global News contacted for this story, all of whom lived in Ontario, none had ever heard of the SAC ...

Here's the Commission's page at MCCSS, with a bit of its history ...
The Soldiers’ Aid Commission was established in 1915 to help returning First World War veterans and their families with problems they faced as they re-entered civilian life, such as finding work and housing.

During the 1920s, the Soldiers’ Aid Commission became a crown ward and at its peak had over 600 children under its care. Following the Second World War and the Korean War, the Commission was expanded to provide supports and services to these returning veterans and their families.

Over the years, the Soldiers’ Aid Commission has provided financial support for countless veterans and their families to assist them during hardships.
The "doesn't help young vets much" angle has been covered by media in the past as well - this from January 2016.
 
I wrote a letter to Doug Ford. It's been passed to the Minister involved.

Now I wait.
 
Fishbone Jones said:
I wrote a letter to Doug Ford. It's been passed to the Minister involved.

Now I wait.
Good show.  Here's hoping ...
 
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