Feds cut deeply into Veterans Affairs

3,085 people working at department in 2013-14, down 21% from 3,904 high

Injured ex-soldiers are being forced to wait longer for support from the government as the number of employees working at Veterans Affairs Canada has fallen to levels not seen since before the war in Afghanistan.

The revelation is contained in internal briefing notes for Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole, poking holes in the Conservative government’s assertions that recent budget cuts and layoffs at the department have not affected front-line service.

Veterans Affairs Canada spokeswoman Janice Summerby said the department will hire more than 100 new disability benefits staff, “both temporary and permanent, to help ensure veterans receive faster decisions on disability benefit applications.

“Hiring additional disability benefit employees means better and faster support for military veterans, Canadian Armed Forces serving members and their families at all stages of the disability benefits application process,” she said.

But critics say the documents prove the government cut too far and too deep at Veterans Affairs, while the new hires are a drop in the bucket of what’s needed.

“The layoffs have had a detrimental impact,” said NDP veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer. “They’re scrambling to rehire people now, but you need a lot more people than that.”

The briefing notes obtained by the Citizen through the access to information law were prepared for O’Toole upon his appointment as veterans affairs minister in January. They provide a historic look at staffing levels within the department, as well as where recent cuts have been made.

According one to briefing book, the number of people working at Veterans Affairs shrank 21 per cent from a high of 3,904 in 2008-09 to 3,085 in 2013-14 as the government cut spending to balance the federal budget. That left the department with its smallest workforce since 1998-99, when it had 3,037 employees.

The same book showed that between 2011 and 2014, the number of “service delivery” employees was cut from 1,890 to 1,352. In fact, of the 668 positions eliminated during that time period, more than 80 per cent were classified as “service delivery.”

Meanwhile, O’Toole was warned in another document that hundreds of injured veterans were being forced to wait more than four months to hear whether they qualified for disability benefits as the applications were being processed slower than the previous year. The note said 68 per cent of applications received between April and December 2014 had been processed within the department’s 16 week target, as opposed to 83 per cent the previous year.

Officials blamed a “convergence of operational challenges,” including delays obtaining records from National Defence and more priority applications. They also cited “the learning curve associated with digitizing our processes” and a new requirement to call veterans for additional evidence before rejecting any claim.

That new requirement appears to have coincided with an 8 per cent increase in the number of applications approved from the previous year. But critics said that didn’t balance out the fact hundreds more injured veterans are having to wait unacceptably long periods of time before receiving support.

“The processing is going down because there are fewer people to do the processing,” said Liberal veterans affairs critic Frank Valeriote. “They cut Veterans Affairs to have money to spend during an election year to pander for votes.”

Veterans issues are shaping up to be a ballot box question for some Canadians heading into the October election.