The federal government needs to come up with a better way for compensating injured Canadian veterans for their pain and suffering on top of the compensation they already receive for their disability, says a new report by the Veterans Ombudsman released today.
The report entitled “Fair Compensation to Veterans and their Survivors for Pain and Suffering” calls for improvements to the compensation provided to over 50,000 veterans and their survivors who fall under the New Veterans Charter (NVC).
The report focused on non-economic benefits provided by Veterans Affairs Canada to disabled Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members and veterans and their survivors to compensate them for the non-monetary impacts of illness, injury or death, such as loss of or diminished body function, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and impact on quality of life, said Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent.
“While no amount of money can provide full restitution, veterans who have suffered from an illness or injury due to their service need to be fairly compensated for the impact their disability has on their lives and on the lives of their families,” said Parent in a prepared statement.
(click to listen to the full interview with Guy Parent)
ListenThe purpose of the report was to assess the fairness of compensation provided under the NVC for non-economic loss and to compare this to what other Canadians can receive for similar loss suffered in workplace under other federal, provincial and/or territorial worker compensation programs and the courts, Parent said.
The report also looks at what veterans in other countries may receive, he said.
The findings in the report indicate that the $360,000 Disability Award is fair compared to how other Canadians are compensated for the non-economic effects of impairment or injury.
What’s missing in the new system is a payment for exceptional incapacity of an individual, to compensate the loss of quality of life due to the injury, Parent said.
“Even though people are able to generate income, there is sometime a very significant impact on their life,” he said.
Veterans who are covered by the old Pension Act, before the New Veterans Charter came into effect, received an allowance called an Exceptional Incapacity Allowance throughout their lifetime, Parent said.
And the first of the three recommendations of the report deals with introducing an exceptional incapacity allowance in the NVC, Parent said.
The second recommendation argues that the criteria to qualify for compensation for exceptional incapacity should not be based on a specific minimum disability percentage, he said.
The third recommendation has to do with the fact that especially after the war in Afghanistan there are a lot young soldiers that don’t have spouses, but their parents and siblings who look after them or depend on their support are not considered “next of kin” under the law and to do not receive any of the compensation the family of a married soldier would receive under the Disability Award, Parent said.
“That $360,000 dollars is not paid to anybody, because they have no next of kin as such,” Parent said. “What we’re saying is that even a single member of the Canadian Forces who dies as the result of the injuries to due to his service, there should be a payment made to the estate.”
In an emailed statement Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr said he valued the feedback from the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman and thanked the Ombudsman and his staff.
“I am pleased that several recommendations made in the report Fair Compensation to Canada’s Veterans For Pain have already been addressed by the historic changes we delivered in Budget 2016,” Hehr said in the statement. “Improvements to the Disability Award and increased access to the Permanent Impairment Allowance are just some of the benefits that we improved that are aligned with the Ombudsman’s recommendations. Other recommendations may take more time, consultation with stakeholders and coordination with departments across government to address.”
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