UNION DEMANDS NEW HIRES TO TAC KLE APPLICA TION BACKLOG

The union representing employees at Veterans Affairs Canada says the department should hire more permanent staff to deal with the backlog of veterans waiting for services and benefits. Union president Virginia Vaillancourt said temporary hires will not fix long-standing problems. “Veterans are not temporary,” she said. “We need permanent staff to be fully trained and in place consistently, not on temporary funding.” In June, Veterans Affairs said it would extend contracts for 160 employees it had hired temporarily to process applications, and would add another 300 to their number. The parliamentary budget office said Monday that Veterans Affairs Canada can clear its backlog of disability benefit applications in a year if it hires nearly 400 more people beyond that. Pending applications for benefits had reached almost 50,000 by the end of March, up from about 21,000 three years earlier. The union claims there are backlogs in almost every section of the department including in the appeals unit, with case managers and with the service agents who work with veterans.