NATO Veterans Organization of Canada
Organisation canadienne des vétérans de l’OTAN
A Voice for today’s Veterans ~ Une voix pour les vétérans d’aujourd’hui
President's News
Updated - September 15 2012
Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs
Publications - March 15, 2012
41st PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs
Now we go to the NATO Veterans Organization of Canada, of which Mr. Gord Jenkins is president.
Welcome, sir.
next intervention previous intervention
Mr. Gord Jenkins (President, NATO Veterans Organization of Canada):
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. It's an honour to be here. The gentleman to my right just stole my speech, so I will be brief.(referring to CAVUNP Mr O'Brien speech)
A voice: We can hear it again
Mr. Gord Jenkins: You can hear it again.
One question that was asked is, who is this group, NATO Veterans Organization? These gentlemen here in the group to my right...I belong to it. I also have done a number of tours of peacekeeping, but I did NATO as well . It's surprising, we've been in NATO for a third of Confederation, over 70 years. Over 250,000 Canadian servicemen have gone through NATO and are in places of harm in NATO right now.
We call NATO the forgotten generation. There's the Korean War, World War II, and the hospitals and the services that were provided for them. Then there's this quiet period.
I've heard the expression, the "new era veterans". The term is the "modern-day veterans", and these are the veterans who are post-Korea, up to and including today. They do not get the same attention, and we are afraid, as Colonel O'Brien has mentioned, that after this upcoming budget, the front-line service will not be there. The government spending...of course, it affects the veterans if you cut out the services, particularly the front-line staff. These are the ones who we deal with. Everybody at this table deals with them on a day-to-day basis. We get excellent service. We have no complaints. We're not here to complain about the front-line service of Veterans Affairs. If anything, we compliment it.
Who are NATO veterans? We are one of the modern-day veterans' organizations, just one. With the other modern-day organizations, we focus on this forgotten generation of veterans. Our patron, for information, is General Paul Manson. I was asked specifically in the e-mail to say who we were because we are a new organization, only two years old. Our two senior advisors are Duane Daly-you might have heard his name, as he's the former secretary of the Canadian Legion-and Sean Maloney, professor of history at RMC, and he asked me to read this out at the committee.
There was an editorial in the Ottawa paper on March 9, titled "All Veterans Need Long-Term Care". NATO Veterans, Chairman:
I note with satisfaction that there is finally an organization in Canada that recognizes the fact that thousands of Canadians served overseas and in Canada during the Cold War: The NATO Veterans of Canada. These men and women placed themselves at the ultimate risk by volunteering to serve during a historical period of maximum danger to the human race [particularly in Europe] and agreed to serve in the face of a unique form of obliteration: possible thermonuclear weapons use. This fact is receding in the current cultural milieu....
It is in no Canadian textbook about this period of Canada's history. Professor Maloney checked and he could not find one reference.
In conclusion, I'd like to focus on one area that has been mentioned by a couple of gentlemen here, and that's health care. Health care is tied in with the budget cuts. Hospitals are being transferred. All the military hospitals are being transferred to the provinces.
+ -(1615)
Veterans are not a provincial responsibility. They are a federal responsibility. By transferring these hospitals-I just got the ombudsman's report, and I noted that he picked it up. He said the highest number of complaints received by the ombudsman, and that's true of NATO veterans, relate to health care. These complaints cover a wide range of issues, including reimbursement of travel, limitations on treatment protocols, a cumbersome approval process, and one clear gap is the long-term care program. It does not include a strategy to incorporate the Canadian Forces veterans, the modern-day veterans who may require long-term care-and we're speaking about the people coming back pretty soon-as well as someone like the gentleman who's put in 35 years and will require long-term care in priority placement down the road.
What happens now? Perley Rideau in Ottawa is being transferred to the provincial government. The place is alive with construction. It's going to become a dementia centre. When the last Korean veteran is out of there, that's it, no veterans.
To quote the ombudsman:
There seems to be an apparent gap between programs to keep veterans and spouses at home as long as possible and the provisions of a bridging nature, such as subsidized access to assisted living....
The ombudsman is speaking of a second program; the long-term care program is disappearing. There is a program called VIP, and that means a veteran can be looked after at home. He can have a nurse, medicine, and food, but the problem is, if his roof is falling off, if his furnace is broken, or he needs to have a single-pane window cleaned-they won't do a second window. In other words, he can live in a hovel, but he certainly gets meals on wheels.
In conclusion, it's our first time here as NATO veterans. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen.
Last modified
September 15 2012