WATCH: Global News has exclusively learned about a new initiative to help family members caring for wounded veterans. Vassy Kapelos has the details.
OTTAWA — The Conservatives on Tuesday will announce a new grant for veterans, Global News has learned. This marks the third announcement focused on veterans affairs the Harper government has made within the past week.
While in Vancouver tomorrow, Veterans Minister Erin O’Toole will announce a “family care-giver benefit” intended to help family members caring for sick or injured veterans.
The fund will become accessible to a spouse, parent or an adult child who, often at a cost to their finances and own well being, provide care for veterans.
READ MORE: Cpl. Cirillo’s death spurred injured reservist benefit changes, minister says
A government source would not say how much money will go into this fund, saying only the plan is for it to be “a sizable grant.”
Late last week, O’Toole announced the government’s intention to fill a gap in the benefit program for reservists who are injured during military service, putting the part-timers on equal financial terms with regular members of the Canadian Forces.
READ MORE: They face the same risks, so why don’t reservists get equal benefits?
The change means the minimum benefit to cover lost earnings for reservists almost doubles from $24,300 to more than $42,000 a year. The military estimates about 200 part-time reservists will benefit when the change goes into effect next month and will cost about $24 million over the next five years.
Earlier in the week, the minister proposed a new retirement benefit for some of the country’s most severely disabled soldiers, aimed at helping stave off financial hardship when they hit old age.
READ MORE: Feds offer support for wounded vets without military pension
O’Toole said that benefit would provide wounded troops a monthly income support payment, beginning at age 65.
The proposal is aimed at the hundreds of severely disabled veterans (mostly from Afghanistan and recent peacekeeping missions) who don’t receive certain allowances or a Canadian Forces pension, while their disability income replacement ends at retirement.
The Conservatives have planned a series of steps to take over the next month on the veterans file, which has become a thorn in the side of the Conservatives — the same party to increase the profile and prominence of the Canadian Armed Forces.
READ MORE: Less money to help veterans, more to remember them in 2014-15
Critics lashed out at the department for lapsing $1.1 billion in funding, and for the move to nix almost 900 jobs, citing both instances as evidence the Conservatives have failed Canada’s veterans.
And until earlier this year when O’Toole took over the portfolio, his predecessor, Julian Fantino, was under fire for months, with questions surrounding his department’s spending, including a $200-million funding announcement for mental health facilities that was spread over 50 years instead of six, as initially announced.
That episode followed the controversy over the government’s decision to close eight veterans affairs offices across the country.
With files from The Canadian Press
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