Union attacks Tories over office closings
Series of PSAC ads focuses on impact of government cuts on veterans
With an October federal election looming, the country’s largest union has produced a series of videos blasting the Conservative government’s decision to shutter nine Veterans Affairs Canada offices across the country.
The videos come amid Conservative fears that unions are preparing to launch an unprecedented number of attack ads in advance of the election, as they did to great effect during last year’s Ontario election.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada says it’s no coincidence the videos are being released on the eve of the election. And while the union says the videos aren’t specifically aimed at the Conservative government, it is hoping they will “cut through the spin” and get voters thinking when they head to the polls.
“We’re just trying to provide the facts right now,” said Carl Gannon, national president of the PSAC-affiliated Union of Veterans Affairs Employees. “We’re obviously not trying to tell anyone who to vote for right now. But we feel we have a duty to get as much information out there as we can.”
A statement from Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole’s office said the minister listens “to all veteran voices and the public service unions like PSAC.” It added that some recent changes to veterans’ services and benefits, such as plans to hire 100 front-line case managers “reflect input from all of them.”
Three of the four videos produced by PSAC feature veterans arguing that the office closures have made it more difficult to access support and services. A Veterans Affairs employee echoes that message in the fourth video.
“When the Veterans Affairs office was open, I was able to go have a face-to-face conversation with a client service agent,” veteran and PTSD sufferer Robert Cutbush says of the Thunder Bay office in one video. “Now you want me to open up about my inner trauma that I’m dealing with to someone over the phone?”
In another video, veteran Vincent Rigby credits staff at the office in Sydney, N.S., with saving his life. “I was on the verge of committing suicide,” says Rigby, who served in Bosnia and Croatia before being medically released in 2002 because of PTSD.
The Conservative government closed the Veterans Affairs regional offices in Thunder Bay and Sydney as well as Charlottetown, Corner Brook, N.L., Windsor, Ont., Brandon, Man., Saskatoon and Kelowna, B.C., last year.
The government said the offices weren’t busy enough, and closing them saved about $5 million per year. It said veterans would not be affected because they could still receive information and support online, by telephone, or at one of 600 Service Canada locations across the country.
The Liberals and NDP have said they would reopen the offices if elected to govern in October. But the Conservative government has alleged that the union is stirring up anger over the office closures, and have said the veterans speaking out about the issue represent a small, disgruntled minority.
Cutbush said he isn’t political or affiliated with PSAC, but simply speaking for the many veterans in his community who are upset the office was closed.
Pearl Osmond’s 24-year-old daughter Robyn Young lost part of her eyesight after military doctors misdiagnosed a brain tumour and ordered unnecessary eye surgery. With the Windsor office closed, the two had to make numerous twohour drives to the VAC office in London, Ont.
Osmond and Young are featured in one of the videos, and Osmond said she was “happy they’re (PSAC) doing it because the public needs to know how veterans are being treated by this government.”
The statement from O’Toole’s office noted some of the minister’s staff met with Young at O’Toole’s request, and that she “has our government’s complete support.”
While the videos are already online, Gannon said the union plans to purchase radio and television time. He said the union will focus mostly on where the offices were closed.
The Conservative government has cut about 900 positions from Veterans Affairs Canada since 2009.
That represents a 23-per-cent reduction in its workforce.