VAC Return to Lifetime Pensions Discussion

[brihard]

Yup. It's all smoke and mirrors. It's about appearing to do something. Much like the new education benefit which looks good until you get into the weeds. 80/40 thousand (taxed) to cover tuition AND living expenses. Good luck covering life's costs with what remains after tuition is paid.

ETB isn't intended to be a free ride. It's still a hell of a good help. We cover our own cost of living while serving, why wouldn't we pay for our own food and rent/mortgage once we're out?

ETB is taxable, yes, but if you're actually spending it on education that will be offset by the tax deductions for educational expenses. There are also tax credits in some provinces for things like property tax and rent.

If someone is accessing the ETB, then they are not having their training/schooling funded through VOC rehab. They presumably have left the military as a life choice, and are choosing to accept that they are no longer getting paid to do a job because they believe that pursuing education will open up new economic opportunities. With at least six years in the military under their belt they should have the necessary job skills to be gainfully employable while going to school. They aren't being hard done by because VAC won't pay for their groceries as well. We did not have this benefit, and now we do- and it's a pretty good one.

 

[JesseWZ]

ETB isn't intended to be a free ride. It's still a hell of a good help. We cover our own cost of living while serving, why wouldn't we pay for our own food and rent/mortgage once we're out?

ETB is taxable, yes, but if you're actually spending it on education that will be offset by the tax deductions for educational expenses. There are also tax credits in some provinces for things like property tax and rent.

If someone is accessing the ETB, then they are not having their training/schooling funded through VOC rehab. They presumably have left the military as a life choice, and are choosing to accept that they are no longer getting paid to do a job because they believe that pursuing education will open up new economic opportunities. With at least six years in the military under their belt they should have the necessary job skills to be gainfully employable while going to school. They aren't being hard done by because VAC won't pay for their groceries as well. We did not have this benefit, and now we do- and it's a pretty good one.

To add to what Brihard has stated, I know several people who have taken advantage of this benefit to completely fund the programs which would otherwise have cost them tens of thousands of dollars. If you're planning on pursuing education after the military or a new vocation its basically free money with the caveat it's spent on education. I'm not a huge fan of the sitting government, but this benefit is a winner to me.

 

[Retired and Broken]

A lot of guys are making some loud noises about some pretty small monthly checks they're going to be getting... I don't really buy that one. They already got their disability award payout. If buddy's getting a few hundred a month it's going to be on top of probably a few hundred thousand already received, plus whatever other benefits and services they've had access to.

This is true. However, if members have been deemed eligible for the benefit why not make it useful to them? I would wager that is what the loud noise is about.

 

[Retired and Broken]

To add to what Brihard has stated, I know several people who have taken advantage of this benefit to completely fund the programs which would otherwise have cost them tens of thousands of dollars. If you're planning on pursuing education after the military or a new vocation its basically free money with the caveat it's spent on education. I'm not a huge fan of the sitting government, but this benefit is a winner to me.

I agree with most of what both of you are saying. Releasing members, medical or otherwise, have programs available to them that you will not find in any other career path. That said, and this is only my opinion, I can't help but see a repeating pattern of carefully calculated benefits that wager on former members not accessing, or fully accessing them due to structure. But that's just me sitting here with my pile of tinfoil hats.

 

[brihard]

I agree with most of what both of you are saying. Releasing members, medical or otherwise, have programs available to them that you will not find in any other career path. That said, and this is only my opinion, I can't help but see a repeating pattern of carefully calculated benefits that wager on former members not accessing, or fully accessing them due to structure. But that's just me sitting here with my pile of tinfoil hats.

Well if people don't *want* to access it, that's fine, that's their call. Plenty of people won't *want* to commit to going back to school, that's not their career path. They might already have a good job lined up. Others may sit on it for a while until an MBA or something becomes a desirable next step. Still others will just have fun with the $5k short courses, which is cool too.

Ultiamtely it makes full time post secondary a lot more accessible now that it would have been before.

Incidentally I've also got an ATIP in to see if they have approved funding for any of the various police, corrections, or border services training programs, since some of those charge tuition, and others don't but don't pay you either. That one's pure curiosity on my part since I know some guys and girls who will take that path in coming years.

 

[cctchevy18]

I’m not afraid to say it’s truly not about complaining about a few hundred dollars, that’s pretty rash, you can say all these great benefits that are there now, but systematically they are multiples less than the old charter of which was not only the liberal promise but still shows a large gap in our fellow vets benefits. If we take the “making loud noises about an extra small monthly cheque” out of that context then sure it sounds crazy, but it truly shouldn’t be taken out of that context. This isn’t about whining, people are standing up for themselves and what they deserve, not just what the broken system forces on them, and albeit to the def ears of the govt, at least they are trying, and it’s their right, kudos to them.

I also agree with happyyourhacky, in regards to accessing benefits, it’s not always just about people not *wanting* to access benefits, there’s lots of reasons that people don’t take benefits or apply, whether it be that they have never been helped before when they asked, they have been chewed up and spit up by the system more than once with denied injuries, or sheer stupidity which has worsened their own health and or faith in the system. It’s just not that cut and dry, and I don’t believe it’s any of our places to judge other people on that cause what’s easy for one person may not be for another, why don’t we try to help people who may be reading this and be on the fence about getting help and benefits, maybe change everything for them, cause I have tons of buddies who will never access benefits for a lot more complicated reasons then the sheer fact that they don’t *want* to, and the system structure works great at doing that to people with the delay and deny philosophy among many other things.

 

[brihard]

I also agree with happyyourhacky, in regards to accessing benefits, it’s not always just about people not *wanting* to access benefits, there’s lots of reasons that people don’t take benefits or apply, whether it be that they have never been helped before when they asked, they have been chewed up and spit up by the system more than once with denied injuries, or sheer stupidity which has worsened their own health and or faith in the system. It’s just not that cut and dry, and I don’t believe it’s any of our places to judge other people on that cause what’s easy for one person may not be for another, why don’t we try to help people who may be reading this and be on the fence about getting help and benefits, maybe change everything for them, cause I have tons of buddies who will never access benefits for a lot more complicated reasons then the sheer fact that they don’t *want* to, and the system structure works great at doing that to people with the delay and deny philosophy among many other things.

I was speaking specifically to the Education Training Benefit. That's a benefit designed for *any* veterans, not just med releases, and because you cannot access it at the same time as Voc Rehab funding for school, presumabl yif someone is a med release and accessing it, they have already gone through rehab and their life situation has stabilized.

When I said someone in many cases doesn't want that particular benefit, that was exactly accurate. Buddy does 12 years as a CAF pilot, gets all his tickets, then pops smoke and hops over to Air Canada to fly for them. He may not have any need or desire to go back to school. Or someone else does eight years in and gets hired by Calgary Police, he's right into a career and may not need or want to go back for a degree or diploma. Obviously other people *will* want to make use of it. I plan to, probably in the context of a professional Master's degree. Others will finish their time in battalion, realize the army kinda sucks, and decide to get out and go get a trade ticket at a technical college, or maybe pay for a Primary Care Paramedic program, or any number of other things. It's still on them to be able to plan their life to pay for rent and groceries. That would have been the case regardless.

Now, what you said in the paragraph I quoted- absolutely true for disability related benefits. A lot of people see an intimidating process and don't realize the resources that exist to help them with claims. The wait times on claims are absurd and that's absolutely a barrier to accessing benefits and care. The ETB though is pretty straightforward, it's not hard to qualify for, and it's not hard to get approved so long as you take the simple steps to know the process and apply. Yes you have to have your ducks in a row with knowing what you want to do at school and having a plan; but then if you're committing to 2-4 years of school, you should anyway.

 

[cctchevy18]

I can hear your point on half and can agree with you and appreciate when you say part of it wasn’t exactly accurate , but also you walked around half of what I said, again quoting you,
“A lot of guys are making some loud noises about some pretty small monthly checks they're going to be getting... I don't really buy that one. They already got their disability award payout. If buddy's getting a few hundred a month it's going to be on top of probably a few hundred thousand already received, plus whatever other benefits and services they've had access to. It's not like the dude who lost a leg overseas has never been treated or compensated and now they get three thousand bucks a year and have a nice life. Whatever people are now additionally getting has to be on top of what they already got.”

Again guys aren’t whining or just making noise”” and I understand the new amounts are on top of the DA, just like vets under the old charter are still fighting for vets under the new charter , it’s the same where the new charter vets are gonna fight for themselves and the guys going under the new pension for life, it’s not about the small cheque’s but truly about what’s behind the small amount in its self but cause they aren’t getting what they were told or promised, they’re standing up against that, and they should be free to do that, that’s all I’m getting at

 

[brihard]

I can hear your point on half and can agree with you and appreciate when you say part of it wasn’t exactly accurate , but also you walked around half of what I said, again quoting you,
“A lot of guys are making some loud noises about some pretty small monthly checks they're going to be getting... I don't really buy that one. They already got their disability award payout. If buddy's getting a few hundred a month it's going to be on top of probably a few hundred thousand already received, plus whatever other benefits and services they've had access to. It's not like the dude who lost a leg overseas has never been treated or compensated and now they get three thousand bucks a year and have a nice life. Whatever people are now additionally getting has to be on top of what they already got.”

Again guys aren’t whining or just making noise”” and I understand the new amounts are on top of the DA, just like vets under the old charter are still fighting for vets under the new charter , it’s the same where the new charter vets are gonna fight for themselves and the guys going under the new pension for life, it’s not about the small cheque’s but truly about what’s behind the small amount in its self but cause they aren’t getting what they were told or promised, they’re standing up against that, and they should be free to do that, that’s all I’m getting at

I wasn't trying to walk around that- I just wasn't going to go into it farther since I said my bit, but since you want more from me on it, no worries. *You* understand what's being done in this case, that's clear. Unfortunately a lot of people really don't. The amount of gnashing of teeth I'm seeing on social media over this has made that clear. A lot of people don't understand what's going on and more importantly haven't made an effort to find out. There *is* a lot of what is simply complaining, including a lot by people who are not DA recipients, won't be impacted by this, but want to buy into to whatever outrage is currently en vogue.

A return to the Pension Act was never promised or hinted at. They talked about a pension for life, but *not* the Pension Act. And regarding a pension for disability, the only way that the new numbers would come close to the old numbers would be if again economic and pain and suffering were lumped in with each other. That's not happening and wouldn't be appropriate to do since both are quite distinct and both ought to be separately compensated.

Every time I see someone angrily talking about a supposed return to the Pension Act I want to just yell at them 'REHABILITATION!' The importance of Voc Rehab can't be understated. *Yes* there are instances where it has been applied poorly and that needs to keep being worked on- but my God, when a guy in his mid twenties gets busted up overseas, we owe him better than enough money to eat until he dies, and that was the biggest flaw with the old system. That individual probably still has a lot of good potential to fill their day with something meaningful, and they may need considerable help achieving that- but achievable it is. That then plays into ELB - or soon the Income Replacement Benefit. If you're in Rehab, or deemed to have long term barriers to re-establishment, then you get income replacement.

Absolutely people are free to 'stand up against' this. Which as I described is tilting at windmills at this point- it's a done deal. There may be further small tweaks, but separation of pain and suffering, and economic loss is here to stay. It's consistent with best practices pretty much across the board in the field of workplace injury compensation which, for better or worse, this is. Efforts are better made on pushing for shorter wait times, pushing for more favourable interpretations in favour of the veterans, reducing barriers to accessing care and benefits, and pushing for some of the issues that have been brewing on the sides like denial of Caregiver Recognition Benefit to caregivers of vets suffering psychological injuries.

There's an election coming up. Veterans will again be pushing veterans issues, but I hope they recognize which battles to pick here. The real achievable wins going forward are going to be in service delivery, not in the legislative and regulatory structure of the benefits themselves.

 

[TCM621]

There are 3 main issues as I see it:

The first is the Pension Act was fairly straight forward, X percent disability get Y dollars a month. Both the NVC and the new PFL have dozens of sub programs which most of the people I talk to at VAC barely understand let alone vets  Those benefits are paid out in a seemingly unfair process. Under the new system it is very hard to compare apples to apples.

The second, is that the Liberals campaigned on a "return to the pensions for life" not to create a new program with an old sounding name. This angered a lot of vets who likely voted for them based on that problem.  Combine that with their handling of the Veterans fair generally such as Trudeau's "more than we can give" comments, continuing the Equitas case despite pledging not to and our new minister pledging to use her position to advance indigenous issues rather than vet issues, this creates a lack of trust.

Thirdly, VAC is a horribly run department and it seems to have gotten worse since the Liberals took over. You almost never get the same answer twice, front line staff has very little knowledge, and no anility to find information, and (at least in my case) they appear to make stuff up when they aren't sure what is going on.

So we have what looks like poor policy from a government we don't trust being run through a department that I wouldn't put in charge of lawn maintenance let alone the financial, physical and mental well beings of people who get hurt supporting their country.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I was looking for info the other day, on My VAC page. I don't know how I got to where I was, but it gave the stats for past, present and projected futures. It had vets served, amounts paid for programs, etc.

What I noticed was a general downturn in all payments, longer waits, less entry into plans. Less clients getting past the ajudicators. Generally a basic downturn n everything good and an uptick with most things bad.

The common identifier was the date things started going to hell.

2016-2017.

It just goes downhill from then.

If I get a chance, I'll see if I can't find it again.

 

[Rifleman62]

Quick, before VAC reads your post and delete the info. ;D

 

[brihard]

There are 3 main issues as I see it:

The first is the Pension Act was fairly straight forward, X percent disability get Y dollars a month. Both the NVC and the new PFL have dozens of sub programs which most of the people I talk to at VAC barely understand let alone vets  Those benefits are paid out in a seemingly unfair process. Under the new system it is very hard to compare apples to apples.

Pre-2006 (Pension Act):
- Disability pension; % based, varied depending on # of dependents.
- Exceptional Incapacity Allowance
- Attendance Allowance for caregivers

Pain and suffering and economic loss are lumped into the same benefit. There is no distinction in benefits between someone who can still earn a living and someone who cannot. The pension amount varied with number of dependents- someone who was single would receive much less than someone married with kids. Disability pension is tax free which is a definite plus.

2006-2019 NVC
- Non-economic loss recognized through the Disability Award, tax free.
- Later recognition of pain and suffering through the Critical Injury Benefit (huge flaws, but not the subject right now so I'll defer). Tax free
- Economic loss through Earnings Loss Benefit initially of 75% or pre-release salary, later increased to 90%, including spec pay. Taxable.
- Permanent Incapacitation Allowance (later changed to Career Impact Allowance), and Supplement- increased monthly payments for the most badly permanently disabled.
- Retirement Income Security Benefit later added. Guarantees 70% of VAC benefits continue past age 65.
- Caregiver Recognition Benefit later added (Less generous than attendance allowance, discriminatory against mental health injuries).

So, I'll concede that the 2006-2019 NVC is quite a bit more complex than the pre-2006 Pension Act, however to claim that there were 'dozens' of benefits and services is hyperbole. There were only a couple more major benefits, and additional services like Vocational Rehab and later Career Transition Services are bloody good things to have. A lot of people suffer disability but are not invalids and can and want to move on to a new line of work. The disability rates for pain and suffering are definitely lower than the pension act pension would be, though note that CIA and CIA-S under NVC can top out at quite a lot more than EIA. The economic portion of the benefits is separately compensated under ELB if the veteran cannot earn at least 2/3 of their old income.

Now, for the new system:

Post-2019 Veterans Well Being Act
- Income Replacement Benefit: 90% of pre-release income including spec pay; 70% after age 65. Taxable. $20k of employment income can be earned before this begins to offset. BEnefit grows by 1% per year for up to 20 years to account for lost career growth.
- Pain and Suffering Compensation: % based, monthly amount up to max $1150/mo, or can be taken as a lump sum, presently around $274k at 100% if memory serves. Non-taxable.
- Additional pain and suffering compensation: Three grades, $500, $1000, $1500 a month depending on the degree of disability and the barriers to transition caused. Non-taxable.
- Caregivers Recognition Benefit, as per the NVC.
- Critical Injury Benefit (one time lump sum, around $70k if I recall) seems to still exist for sudden critical injuries or illnesses.

So, I wouldn't say that the new system is much more complex than the Pension Act, and it's definitely simpler than NVC. Veterans will not receive different financial compensation depending on if they're married with kids or not- why should the injuries of a single 23 year old be valued less than a 45 year old with a spouse and kids? Families tend not to be single income economic units anymore, and the economic half of the benefits also recognizes and compensatedthe lost income specifically if the veteran cannot earn a living anymore.

Fair to expect that VAC front line personnel probably are not up to speed on the system due in April yet. It took time to get used to NVC, not the least because of the frequent changes as they tried to fix it, but claiming that most VAC staff didn't know how it worked I'm very skeptical of that. Those I've known who worked in benefits certainly did.

The second, is that the Liberals campaigned on a "return to the pensions for life" not to create a new program with an old sounding name. This angered a lot of vets who likely voted for them based on that problem.  Combine that with their handling of the Veterans fair generally such as Trudeau's "more than we can give" comments, continuing the Equitas case despite pledging not to and our new minister pledging to use her position to advance indigenous issues rather than vet issues, this creates a lack of trust.

Right, but 'pension for life' did not mean 'restore the pension act'. That specific idea was floated and widely rejected by a variety of veterans specifically because pulling the Pension Act wholesale out of the barracks box would have killed ELB, Voc Rehab, Transition Services and other good benefits. Wanting a pension calculated off the same rates table as the Pension Act would necessarily be the death knell for ELB since the Pension Act pension covered both economic *and* suffering. That's part of why it's a problem.

Thirdly, VAC is a horribly run department and it seems to have gotten worse since the Liberals took over. You almost never get the same answer twice, front line staff has very little knowledge, and no anility to find information, and (at least in my case) they appear to make stuff up when they aren't sure what is going on.

VAC needs to be run better, no question. Part of the problem has been public service hiring practices. They've recruited a lot of front line staff, but they work term contracts because the department cannot have the budgetary certainty to make them indeterminate. A good worker will do two years as a client services agent, then with a couple months left in their contract they need to find their next job and so off they go using their experience to get into another department that can give them permanent. Attrition has been a huge problem. The rapid flux in benefits hasn't helped either. Going forward there will be a simpler, more straightforward system of benefits with less interlocking and overlap. This should let front line staff get better at dealing with complex cases. But with that said, most cases I hear about get dealt with fine once they eventually reach the front of the queue.

The biggest problem is wait times. That problem simply needs more money thrown at it, in the sense that more staff need to be hired to process claims. When the previous government slashed departmental budgets, VAC basically had to take that out of personnel and operations since the expenditures on benefits payments are statutorily protected. They lost a lot of staff and they lost a lot of the certainty that comes with being able to be sure that they can permanently keep staff they hire. The current government has made a big show of hiring a bunch more, but a lot of experience and corporate knowledge was lost, and some of the new staff aren't sticking around.

Departmentally VAC needs to be taken seriously by the government. Treat it like the department of middling importance that it is rather than a political football, put someone in the job who will stay there for a whole mandate unless they really frig up, and give them marching orders to make the department work its ass off on service delivery. Give them the budget to hire and to train front line staff, and don't make hiring criteria so absurdly tight that good people can't qualify for the jobs.

 

[Rifleman62]

Brihard, I am going to repeat myself: VAC should triage ALL the files in the system. Quick review for conceivably, grant the claim at the max, with a provision of non precedent approval with respect to a one time benefit, then start from scratch.

Then more money will not be needed to be thrown at the problem and all the personnel retention/trg problem you state will be resolved.

 

[brihard]

Brihard, I am going to repeat myself: VAC should triage ALL the files in the system. Quick review for conceivably, grant the claim at the max, with a provision of non precedent approval with respect to a one time benefit, then start from scratch.

Then more money will not be needed to be thrown at the problem and all the personnel retention/trg problem you state will be resolved.

What you're proposing is essentially granting taxpayers money to people as benefits without actually assessing if the benefits claims are valid. They can't legally do that. The claim still has to be assessed to determine if the evidence indicates the disability is established, and if it's service related. Whether something is 'conceivable' is not what legally satisfies expenditure.

You're saying that is Cpl Bloggins claims that he developed an injury or illness, VAC shouldn't be asking questions, they should just pay him out at the maximum rate until all outstanding claims are resolved. Basically approve everyone currently in the pipe and walk away from those claims. That's patently absurd, and would be illegal under the law on how the government spends money. It's not a realistic solution.

There is no quick or easy fix to the backlog. There's a gradual and effective one - hiring more staff. But it simply cannot be done overnight nor particularly quickly. Which is why they should have gotten off their *** on this ages ago, and why I think they have handled this portfolio poorly. Make no mistake, I chalk VAC up as a 'fail' for our current government, however much I may think the new benefits structure is pretty soundly conceived. Implementation matters too.

 

[cctchevy18]

A majority of Vac claims assessments could be made from the military files that already exist, and specifically for released vets the info already exists and Vac has know this since release, I feel like this chain of the forum has become a little like the real world with the vets fighting the government, and in this case we all seem to arguing with you and your opinions, I get your well versed and *educated* on these issues as some of us are as well, but that doesn’t mean your correct in every aspect, other people have opinions as well and they may differ from you and it doesn’t mean there wrong, we should be supporting each other a little more, and theres no need to be condescending either,

Either u don’t care, haven’t been told before,  or don’t realize that using * to surround *your* words is condensing and rude, that use of characters to emphasize your point isn’t really needed, we could respond with 2000 word responses every time but that doesn’t change our views, anything really, or the facts, just a heads up,
I learned to check myself in service, and it sometimes is forgotten

 

[brihard]

A majority of Vac claims assessments could be made from the military files that already exist, and specifically for released vets the info already exists and Vac has know this since release,

Strongly agreed. Reducing duplication of effort is something veterans advocates have been pushing and should continue to push. A military doctor's professional opinion should stand absent some serious reason for it not to. This would probably speed some adjudications up, though regardless of which doctor's reports are being read, it still takes time for an adjudicator to read them and render the decision. It wouldn't be a magic fix. But it would help and I'm all for it, adn this should be a major part of the 'closing the seam' project VAC/DND are working on.

I feel like this chain of the forum has become a little like the real world with the vets fighting the government, and in this case we all seem to arguing with you and your opinions, I get your well versed and *educated* on these issues as some of us are as well, but that doesn’t mean your correct in every aspect, other people have opinions as well and they may differ from you and it doesn’t mean there wrong, we should be supporting each other a little more, and theres no need to be condescending either,

Either u don’t care, haven’t been told before,  or don’t realize that using * to surround *your* words is condensing and rude, that use of characters to emphasize your point isn’t really needed, we could respond with 2000 word responses every time but that doesn’t change our views, anything really, or the facts, just a heads up,
I learned to check myself in service, and it sometimes is forgotten

I definitely have not been told and didn't realize that the asterix could come across that way- not at all my intent to be condescending. (Was it yours when you wrote *educated*?) I used them for emphasis and won't from now on.

I don't pretend or profess to be correct in every respect. I generally only take the trouble to comment if I both care and believe that I have a pretty good clue worth talking about. But I'm not an expert, just another guy watching the system and the moves in it and who occasionally gets to put a word in someone's ear.  And yeah, a few people are going to argue with me, that's fine. My views aren't always popular. Some things are good, some are bad, and I'm careful to differentiate between which I feel is which.  If I go on at length sometimes it's because either I'm passionate about the subject, or there's a point to be made that isn't easily made short if I'm going to back it with the kind of attention to detail people in this forum often expect.

I'm not coming out swinging against anyone here. I just have opinions the same as anyone - some of them strong ones - and if I'm going to argue them I take the time to do it proeprly, and to respect what other people are saying enough to give it a reasoned reply. Fair?

 

[cctchevy18]

Fair for sure.

The *educated* was an emphasis of the impact of the *, and you didn’t seem to like it and that’s the point

Cause we’re all trying to help each other here in one way or another

and didn’t think nor do I think checking yourself and being called out when due is condensing,but again it’s a matter of opinion.

cheers

 

[doomed_78]

Do you think theres anyway that VAC could change their minds and allow for lump sum payments? I was told on the phone by VAC a few weeks that I could choose lump sum and now in reading that it is only monthly. I'm at a loss for words..

 

[Rifleman62]

I disagree with you Brihard. You are very knowledgeable, although you continue to make excuses for VAC, and to me you are coming across as a dyed in the wool bureaucrat 

The VAC crap show is going to continue for years, as it has been going on for years, unless something is quickly done.  Are the VAC workers concerned that once they get back to VAC's standard of service and the claims are reduced (baring another conflict) they will be out of their jobs?  Do not agree with remedy:

There's a gradual and effective one - hiring more staff.

This gov't blows money out the window, texting billions (even if it was in the overspending "budget"), and "that's patently absurd". That's why we have deficit spending in the billions. Thus blow some Veterans way and clear up the mess.

I never said not to assess the file. Stated an alternative method to reduce the huge backlog.

VAC requires a very radical jump start. I don't thing Cdn taxpayer would be upset if Veterans situation was resolved quickly. The Conservatives could devise a plan to resolve the issue such as outsourcing as an election plank, and of course follow through.