WATCH ABOVE: They say the devil is in the details and that’s certainly the case with a program the Harper government promised would help veteran with mental health problems. Vassy Kapelos explains.
OTTAWA – The Conservative government could have been “a bit more clear” about the fact that its $200 million funding announcement for veteran mental health over six years is actually spread out over a half-century, a Tory MP said Friday.
“The announcement of $200 million is making sure that we have enough funding over the long-term to meet the new programming and the new benefits we announced,” Conservative MP Erin O’Toole, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Trade, said in an interview.
“In some of the background materials, I think we could have been a bit more clear.”
Most of the money will go towards operational stress injury clinics – one in Halifax, and seven satellites across the country.
It’s a $19 million investment initially, with the remaining $140 million promised “over the life of the program.”
The government made the funding announcement on Sunday, in advance of an auditor general’s report this week that found veterans wait up to eight months to find out if they are eligible for long-term, mental health disability benefits.
Before that, it was revealed more than a billion dollars of the veterans affairs budget went unspent.
The opposition accused the government of misleading Canadians on Friday.
“Conservatives mislead the House, mislead the public and mislead veterans,” NDP MP Libby Davies said.
O’Toole, a 12-year air force veteran, said the auditor general’s report showed that the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada need to work better in terms of transferring and digitizing documents.
“Some of the delays, that the auditor general identified in terms of veterans getting disability benefits, some of that’s because of doctor shortages across the country. There’s a whole series of things that we need to work on.”
But he said the opposition is trying to capitalize on the “accounting principles of the government.”
“This is about making sure we not just talk numbers, we also have to talk about how are we meeting the rising new needs of veterans. Mental health is one of those areas and we’re committed to it,” he said.
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