Lifetime-pension option lined up for disabled veterans

OTTAWA — The federal government will commit in Wednesday’s budget to offer disabled veterans the option of a lifetime pension by the end of the year, the Canadian Press has learned.

While the details of the pension will be worked out in the coming months, the commitment to a specific timeline will mark an important benchmark for the Liberals’ signature election promise to veterans.

Canada previously offered lifelong pensions to those hurt in the line of duty. They were abolished in 2006 and replaced by a new system centred on a lump-sum payment for injuries and career training. The new system has angered veterans, with many complaining that it provides less financial support over their lifetimes and demanding the pensions be restored.

The Liberals were the only party to promise in the 2015 election to bring back life pensions for injured veterans, with the pledge serving as the centrepiece of their effort to court veteran voters. In last year’s budget, the government moved to increase the maximum lump-sum payment to $360,000 from $310,000, starting this April 1, with the increase retroactive for all who had received it. The government also topped up a number of financial benefits for veterans injured while in uniform and unable to work and reopened nine Veterans Affairs Canada offices that had been closed by the Conservatives. Those measures were expected to cost $5.6 billion over six years.

But many questioned whether the government would make good on its pledge to bring back the disability pensions, which both the Conservatives and NDP said would be prohibitively expensive.

Representatives from a number of veterans’ groups interviewed this week expressed frustration about the government’s silence and perceived lack of progress on a number of fronts.

Those included providing free education to ex-soldiers and creating a new centre for veterans suffering from PTSD and other psychological injuries. But the promise to bring back lifelong pensions as an option for disabled veterans alongside lump-sum payments and career training was foremost in their thoughts.

“There’s a lot of things left on [Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr’s] mandate letter that we’re waiting for,” said Deanna Fimrite, dominion secretary-treasurer of Army, Navy, Air Force Veterans in Canada. “I think probably in the minds of most veterans it is: What is going to be done about lifelong pensions? I think that’s number 1 on most of their lists.”

Conservative veterans affairs critic John Brassard said the pension is the top issue that ex-soldiers raise when he meets them.