Testimonials

Testimonials Support for Keeping the Promise

The Royal Canadian Legion

In accordance with a recent resolution endorsed by the delegates at the 41^st Convention in Calgary, the Legion has called for a comprehensive review of health care benefits to streamline service delivery and address the eligibility criteria for programs, which are currently far too complex. A simpler system based on the individual needs of our aging Veterans is essential.

The report of the Gerontological Advisory Council, "Keeping the Promise", is an excellent first step toward achieving this goal.

The Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada (ANAVETS)

The Army, Navy and Air Force in Canada, is very much in favour of quick and full implementation of the recommendations of the Gerontological Advisory Council.

Veterans are aging, and these recommendations address the urgent necessity to simplify the system, change the rules to allow for more participation, and allow Veterans to stay closer to family and friends through their difficult times. By addressing a broader range of medical needs, with earlier intervention will help reduce the effects of aging, and significantly improve the lives of our Veterans; those that were willing to give their lives for our freedom.

We should never forget what these Veterans did for us.

National Council of Veterans Associations (NCVA)
Statement of H. Clifford Chadderton, Chairman

"For many years NCVA has supported the serious need for a health care review by Veterans Affairs Canada to address the legislative gaps in the current benefit coverage and to remove the inconsistencies in the eligibility standards. The question of long term care and health care benefits is a high priority for traditional Veterans given their average age and the cumulative impact of their pension disabilities and non-pension conditions.

It remains NCVA’s position that particular focus should be placed on the significant needs of Seriously Disabled Veterans, their spouses and care givers. At our recent Annual Meeting held October 26, 2006, the NCVA membership endorsed a substantive list of proposals to require the Government to establish regulatory changes to rectify these longstanding concerns relevant to health care reform.

It is our hope that the Gerontological Advisory Council recommendations will represent a step in this direction in recognizing the shortcomings in the present VAC health care programs and that the report will stimulate appropriate VAC action to meet the historic government commitment to traditional Veterans and their families."

Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping (CAVUNP)

Our association is extremely pleased to be able to participate in and support the Report of the Gerontological Advisory Council to Veterans Affairs Canada.

There is no doubt the implementation of this progressive report will assist all Canadian Armed Forces Veterans and their families.

In supporting this report, it should be duly noted that our association has also participated in the Veterans Affairs Canada Advisory Committee on the New Veterans Charter, The Veterans Week Advisory Committee and the Joint Veterans Affairs and National Defence Centre for the Care of Injured and Retired Members of the Canadian Forces.

A member of our Association (Don Ethell) is chair of the Operational Stress Injury Services and Support Advisory Committee.

Canadian Peacekeeping Veteran's Association (CPVA)

While not involved in the development of this Report, the CPVA is supportive of the Report's findings, conclusions, and recommendations. We believe that Canada has a binding and moral obligation to care for all its aging Veterans.

Canadians traditionally think of the two World Wars and Korea as the source of our aging Veterans. We, in CPVA, recognize that it was fifty years ago that Lester B Pearson launched Canada into its first peacekeeping mission. Today many of our CF Veterans, some of whom are now in their late seventies, require the same full range of support from Veteran's Affairs.

The GAC paper - Keeping the Promise - focuses on and proposes that Veterans receive integrated services. It appears to us that delivering integrated support services for Veterans makes good sense. Once implemented, these proposals would likely make better use of scarce resources while delivering improved and a broader range of services to Veterans.

Hopefully, Veteran's Affairs Canada will accept and react positively to this report. Undertaking to implement its recommendations as soon as practical.

Gulf War Veterans Association of Canada

Executive and members of the Gulf War Veterans Association of Canada fully endorse this initiative of the Gerontological Advisory Council. This is a long needed initiative for all retired members of the Canadian Forces. Expensive long term care beds are not the only answer. Many of our members do not need this when they would rather stay in their own communities and in many cases in their own home or assisted living facilities. The dollar savings would be tremendous. This program at the same time would be a blue print for the health care system in Canada to follow to help all elderly.