Those who wear the uniform – members of the Canadian Armed Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police alike – make tremendous sacrifices in service of our country. At Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), it is our responsibility to both honour their remarkable contributions, and to provide them with the benefits and services they both need and deserve.
This past year has certainly been a challenging one for everyone at VAC. However, work has continued on all of the Department’s most pressing challenges.
To reduce wait times and tackle the unacceptable backlog of applications, we have hired hundreds of new employees, and developed new and innovative processes to speed up decision-making. We are already making progress, but there is still much more work to do. Our Veterans deserve better, and addressing this is undoubtedly our top priority for 2021–22.
We also know that more needs to be done to help our Veterans and their families as they make the transition to civilian life. This means everything from expanding measures to support them financially, increasing research into their physical and mental wellness, and helping them along new education and training paths.
We will continue to fund important initiatives like the Veterans’ Emergency Fund, and keep working with our partners across the country to take action to address homelessness, chronic pain, suicide, and a range of other issues that we know Veterans can struggle with after they take off their uniform for the last time.
It’s also vitally important that we ensure our Veterans are recognized for their service. This year, we will mark milestone anniversaries, including Canadian participation in Korea, the Persian Gulf, and Afghanistan. There are remarkable stories to tell for each of them, and Veterans and their families will be important voices in helping us make sure that Canadians understand the sacrifices that have been made.
There is a lot of work to be done this year, but I know that everyone at Veterans Affairs Canada is committed to doing right by the Canadians who’ve stepped forward to serve with our flag on their shoulder.
They deserve nothing less.
Sincerely,
The Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, PC, MP
Minister of Veterans Affairs and
Associate Minister of National Defence