(Montreal) The Bloc Québécois castigates Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) for not having acted to correct a situation that would put French-speaking veterans at a disadvantage compared to their English-speaking colleagues.
Posted at 9:12
The Bloc Québécois recalls that a report by the Veterans Ombudsman released in 2018 showed that French-speaking veterans waited an average of 25 weeks longer than English-speaking veterans for a notice of decision on their disability benefit application.
The Bloc veterans affairs critic, Luc Desilets, criticizes the department for not having proven that the situation was improving.
Data finally revealed that the average gap had shrunk to eight weeks during the year 2021, then to 0.6 weeks during the first two months of 2022. These figures would have been transmitted by the government during the last meeting of the Committee permanent veterans.
However, MP Desilets is brandishing a recent briefing note from analysts at the Library of Parliament which points to another reality. Between July and September 2021, the median wait time for French-speaking veterans was 76 weeks, while that of English-speaking veterans was 20.4 weeks. It is unknown what happened to the first months of 2022.
The MNA for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles concludes that the situation has not been corrected and he calls on Minister Lawrence MacAulay to set the record straight on the disparities in processing times between Francophone and Anglophone clients.