Bringing back lifetime pensions for injured vets is welcome, but why the delay?

Inexplicably, it has taken two long years for the Trudeau government to deliver on its election promise to restore lifetime pensions for military people injured in uniform.

But last week, just days before Christmas, Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan finally unveiled a more generous and welcome program to do just that.

The package is much better than many veterans had feared. It won’t simply take the $360,000 lumpsum payment that injured vets are now entitled to and turn it into monthly payments spread out over a lifetime.

Instead, while injured veterans can still choose the lump sum payment, they can also select a monthly cheque for pain and suffering instead. That can reach a maximum of $1,150 per month, tax free.

It’s not as much as injured veterans had hoped for. They wanted lifetime pensions restored to the levels they were at under the old Pension Act. That act was replaced in 2006 by the Harper government with the much-criticized New Veterans Charter.

But other changes under the new “pensions for life” plan will dramatically improve the lives of more seriously injured vets.

For example, the government has introduced a new tax-free benefit worth between $500 and $2,500 a month, on top of the pain and suffering award for those who have severe or permanent disabilities.

Further, injured veterans who had received the one-time benefit will also be eligible for the new benefit for the seriously injured, which will be retroactive. That could result in substantial one-time payments.

And in another positive change, support for spouses will move from 50 per cent of the existing benefit to 70 per cent.

O’Regan said he recognizes there may be some who will still be unhappy with the new plan. “I can’t say we defused the political issue,‚” he acknowledged. But he guaranteed no one will receive less under the new, streamlined program than they are now.

Indeed, the government says the plan will cost $3.6 billion more.

Further, Veterans Affairs is taking other steps to simplify the system. Six different income programs, for example, will be consolidated into a single financial benefit to make it easier to access services.

All this is positive. Still, there is a perplexing catch. None of the changes will come into effect until April 2019.

Government officials say that’s how long it will take to pass legislation on the changes and to secure the additional funding. But considering the plan is not likely to meet any opposition in Parliament that would slow down its passing, it seems possible the delay may simply be aimed at putting off the additional spending for budgetary reasons.

If that’s the reason, it doesn’t stand up. Injured veterans have been fighting the current lump-sum system since the plan was changed, even launching a court case in their ongoing battle with the government for a lifetime pension. Delaying implementation for a year and a half after that long and intense a battle seems insensitive.

To be fair, the Trudeau government has done a lot to help Canada’s 600,000 vets since it took office. It reopened nine veterans’ affairs offices that had been shuttered under the Conservatives, restored hundreds of millions of dollars to the department’s budget, and hired hundreds of workers to improve front-line service. In October, the veterans affairs and defence departments also unveiled a joint plan aimed at preventing more veterans and military personnel from taking their own lives.

All that is to be commended, as are the more generous parts of the government’s new streamlined plan for severely injured vets.

But if the Trudeau government truly wants to prove it has veterans’ backs, it should move more quickly to introduce the program.

(This editorial was published Dec. 21 in the Toronto Star and distributed by the Canadian Press.)