Blake Richards
Airdrie—Cochrane, Alberta · Conservative · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, on June 12, Filipinos worldwide celebrate Philippine Independence Day. As we celebrate, we recognize the rich history, culture and enduring spirit.”
“Mr. Speaker, by moving this motion, the government is shutting down debate about the very underpinnings of our democracy: our elections. There are a number of concerns that I could have raised. There are some positive things in here.”
“The day also reminds us of the value of freedom that inspired the Philippines' independence movement and continues to inspire people everywhere. On behalf of Canada's Conservatives, I wish all Filipinos a happy independence day, and I look forward to joining in tomorrow's celebrations. Maraming Salamat . Mabuhay .”
“Motion for concurrence moved that the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, presented on April 30, be concurred in. He said: Mr. Speaker, I stand today in unity with veterans from all across Canada who have been tirelessly fighting to right a historical wrong.”
“Just a young man, he was sent overseas to fight those responsible for terrorizing not only the people of Afghanistan but also people around the world through horrific attacks like those witnessed on September 11, 2001. It was in Afghanistan where Jess Larochelle made his mark on Canadian history.”
“This example is one that cries for change; it cries for justice. If mistakes were made and new details are brought to light, then mere policy should not stand in the way of honouring a war hero.”
The complete record
Every one of 169 lines we hold for Blake Richards, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 4.
“I think there is an attempt to frighten veterans off so the government does not have to pay them. Veterans often talk about a triple-D policy: delay, deny, die. Their claims are delayed, then their claims are denied, and what is really happening is that the government is hoping they will just go away and give up the fight. Now, to make matters worse, officials are even offering to help with their death. No matter what one thinks about medical assistance in dying as a policy, I think we should all be able to agree that it should not be offered or pushed on those who do not want it, and that is what the bill would ensure. The bill seeks to make sure that people who do not wish to have medical assistance in dying do not have it pushed on them by government bureaucrats.”
“They see how unseriously the role of minister of Veterans Affairs is being treated and how it is treated as a secondary role for Liberals. All nine of those ministers claimed they would eliminate backlogs and would make sure veterans are helped, and that this would be their top priority, but in all cases those backlogs continued to increase. In fact 90% of the claims that are denied by Veterans Affairs are then later approved, decided in the veteran's favour, when they go to the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, which tells us that there is something clearly wrong with what is going on there. It is like an effort to deny veterans the help they deserve. There is clearly a systemic issue, and ultimately it takes many years for most veterans to go through the whole appeals process.”
“She claimed that the burden VAC was putting on her and the difficulties it brought upon her were worse than any injury she had sustained. How can the Liberals smugly sit there and say that they will not act unless veterans come forward, when the last veteran who did come forward was subjected to years of administrative abuse and sanctuary trauma by the very department she called out? It is clear that the Liberals cannot be trusted to have veterans' best interests in mind. I would like to touch on veterans issues just a little more, because it is not just about this issue. In the time the Liberals have been in power, there have been nine different ministers of Veterans Affairs, and some of those ministers served in the role for only a few months before being shuffled on, which makes things clear to veterans.”
“Instead of offering her the wheelchair access that she was looking for, the government said to her, “How about we offer you medical assistance in dying instead?” After that story went across this country, and after Christine came to the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs to tell her story, she was targeted by the government, which made her life a living hell. In the end it was other veterans groups, despite promises that were made by the Liberal government, that had to raise funds to build her a wheelchair access, because Veterans Affairs was refusing to process any of her claims. Christine showed up at committee with a suitcase full of paperwork that Veterans Affairs had forced upon her as an excuse not to provide her with the help she needed. It offered her medical assistance in dying instead when she was not seeking it.”
“(1815) When these veterans are implored to come forward, they can easily look to the case of Christine Gauthier, a veteran and a Canadian Paralympian who bravely went public about being offered medical assistance in dying in 2022 when she was simply asking for help to get wheelchair access to her home. As a result of not having this, she would literally have to drag herself across a gravel driveway, because she is in a wheelchair, and up a couple of flights of stairs to get into her home.”
“The Liberals like to claim, and we heard it even here today in the House, that this issue is just being manufactured, that veterans are making this up and that opposition MPs are making this up. They cite the fact that no veteran has approached them to reveal that these cases are happening. What they are failing to consider is that the dozens of veterans who have reached out to me and others concerning this issue are completely terrified of the retribution they will face if they come out publicly. This is not something they are imagining in their minds, because it has happened.”
“On the other hand, we have dozens of veterans who are coming forward and pleading for help. I will just engage for a moment in hypotheticals. Let us suppose the Liberals were telling the truth, that this issue was simply a rogue public servant and that they are entirely opposed to offering MAID to Canada's veterans. If this were the case, then they should be happily supporting this legislation, as it would codify what they claim to believe, which is that public servants should not be pushing euthanasia on veterans who do not wish to have it, especially those who are vulnerable and looking for help. In every case that I have heard about, that is exactly the situation that we are talking about here.”
“Do lawsuits, settlements and non-disclosure agreements sound like this issue has been put to rest? I think not. We can establish the following three things. First, Canadians, certainly veterans, do not trust the Liberal government. Second, the Liberals have been far less than honest about the scope and prevalence of this issue. Third, they already had bureaucrats who were pushing medical assistance in dying on veterans who did not wish to have it, and veterans are continuing to raise the alarm that this issue is still occurring. At the very least, we can dismiss the Liberal talking points that this issue has been put to rest and that there is no need for this legislation. On the one hand, Canadians have the Liberals' claims that this has stopped, despite the evidence to the contrary.”
“However, the problem with this is that it contradicts the testimony and the claims of several other veterans who, both before and since, have claimed that they were also offered medical assistance in dying by different public servants. This includes being offered MAID by bureaucrats who were male, despite the government claiming it was only one female employee who had gone rogue, apparently. Despite the government claiming that this issue has been put to rest, we put forward an Order Paper question, which returned a few months ago and revealed that there were behind-the-scenes lawsuits by families whose loved ones were, in fact, offered MAID by the Government of Canada, and that there was even a settlement paid and non-disclosure agreements signed.”
“The men and women who bravely served this country are looking for help in order to live their lives. Instead, they have been asked if they have considered medical assistance in dying. I have heard from countless veterans who have told me that they, or others they know, have been offered this kind of thing. When this veterans scandal broke a few years ago, the Liberals' response at the time, to something that I would say is a very massive scandal, frankly, was to say that they investigated themselves and it was just one public servant, whom they then fired. We heard the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs , not too long ago, say that they put in place measures to ensure that this would never happen again, and that is it. They just washed their hands. That is great; all is wonderful.”
“Mr. Speaker, sometimes when we debate bills such as this, we are debating a problem that could exist in the future or that may exist. In this case, that is not at all what we are talking about. We are talking about something that is not a hypothetical problem. We are talking about something that has happened and is happening to veterans in this country. This is something that was raised quite publicly a few years ago. It was shocking and appalling, frankly, to have heard the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs stand in this House just a few minutes ago and say that this is a solution in search of a problem. He knows full well, and the government over there knows full well, that this has happened to veterans in this country.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am not sure that anyone here is suggesting that. If we are to talk about workplace safety, let me talk about the workplace our veterans serve in. Our veterans are willing to lay down their lives for this country. They put themselves in the most difficult positions, ones that any of us could never even imagine. They do that because the government asks them to do that. The only thing that they expect in return is that the government takes care of them and listens to what they need. That is not happening under the government. It is about time the government starts listening to veterans and providing what veterans deserve.”
“Mr. Speaker, if I were to really summarize what I hear from veterans all the time, and I hear it frequently, it is probably summarized best in the words of former prime minister Justin Trudeau when he told veterans they were “asking for more than we [can] give”. That is what veterans feel like they are being told by the government, consistently and constantly, that they are asking for more than we can give. Frankly, we can never give enough. Our veterans, who serve the country, who are willing to lay down their lives for the country, deserve to be treated with respect. They deserve to have what they are entitled to for the service they gave to the country. Right now, they are not seeing it and they are expressing their alarm.”
“Mr. Speaker, what I need to remind the member of is that we are hearing, and the committee heard, from veterans, from women veterans, who have come forward, and they are saying that they need to have the choice. That is what the amendments, which the government is ignoring, are seeking to do. The government can stand up and pretend it is listening. It can claim that it cares. If it really cared, it would listen to what we have heard and act upon it. That is what the amendments give the opportunity to do. The second the government thinks it has a majority government and can do whatever it wants, the idea that it would work together to try to work with everyone and do what is in the best interest of veterans is just completely thrown out the window. That is done the very second it thinks it does not have to listen anymore.”
“I really hope that, perhaps, after listening to some of this today, the government will take a step back and say that it needs to make sure these voices are heard and work with the things that have been done across party lines to make sure those experiences are reflected in this. I do not see that now.”
“What I would say to the government is to think about the veterans who came forward and how much courage it must have taken for them to recount their stories. What needs to be done is to ensure that the recounting of their stories and the bravery they showed to come forward and try to make things better for their fellow future veterans are honoured in a way that involves listening to what was said and acting upon it, rather than just trying to ram through a piece of legislation and trying to pretend that the Liberals have done something by checking a box. The Liberals need to ensure that these veterans, particularly women veterans, have their voices reflected in this. I do not think that is what we are seeing now, when they are refusing to accept some of the amendments.”
“The Province of Ontario put forward a motion to Veterans Affairs, just looking for a simple apology, and there was nothing. It is a clear pattern. With the time I have remaining, I will speak briefly about what the Liberals are doing in terms of the $4-billion cuts they are making to Veterans Affairs and what impact that is going to have on veterans. Veterans are screaming out, because they are going to see five-year wait times to get some of their basic benefits as a result of some of these cuts, including to the bureau of pensions advocates and other cuts. It is shocking, disappointing and sad. It just continues on. This is just another example where veterans are being ignored and not listened to, and where they seem to be the last thing the government thinks about or considers. It is not right. Veterans certainly deserve better.”
“There have been numerous scandals in just the last few years alone where the Liberal government deliberately continues to ignore what veterans are asking for. I think about the Presence in Absence monument. For those who do not know, this is a monument the Liberals funded, which was supposed to honour those who gave their lives in Afghanistan. The Liberals did not do their due diligence and did not ensure that the project was inspected in the right way. It was constructed listing the names of many surviving veterans as killed in action, and other names, of those who actually did lay down their lives, making the ultimate sacrifice, were left off that monument. As we can imagine, survivors and family members of those who were killed in action were furious.”
“It is clear that, once again, this is just another “check the box” for them. Rather than trying to fix the issue, it is some kind of a show of pretending they are doing something. First, the Liberals sat on this issue for almost 10 years, while the media exposed case after case. I do not think Canadians are going to forget how long the Liberals buried their heads in the sand to avoid this issue. What is clear now is that the Liberals are going to attempt to ram through this legislation, rather than actually accept the things that were heard and the work that was done across party lines so that we could actually address the issues in the way the veterans were calling for. The disrespect for veterans does not end there.”
“The amendments made in the national defence committee came straight from veterans. Those veterans had been on the receiving end of the failures of the military justice system. They were the same veterans that the Auditor General reported about and who suffered undue hardship under this system. (1145) Once again, the Liberals will pretend that this entire initiative is their own doing to support women. Then, as soon as they got their majority, they dropped the charade and completely wiped out some of the amendments that came from the very work of these women who came forward. Not only is this disrespectful to all of those who came forward and all of those who made themselves vulnerable to try to help future CAF members, but it is also a blatant display of disregard by the Liberal government.”
“Therefore, after being forced to finally address the issues that were plaguing the Canadian Armed Forces and driving members from its ranks, and after public embarrassment from an Auditor General's report, only then did the Liberals decide there was a need to address these issues. As I said, many of these same women veterans we heard from at the veterans affairs committee bravely came forward to recount their experiences, to talk once again to a parliamentary committee and face the trauma they experienced. They offered their advice on ways to amend Bill C-11 to ensure that victims of the broken justice system had their voices heard. Of course, the goal was to ensure that the military justice system would learn from its mistakes, so future members of the CAF would not be subjected to the same cruel experiences that they were subjected to.”
“They simply felt like they were being used for photo ops or as a showpiece. In the end, despite raising these concerns with the Minister of Veterans Affairs , and despite many of us raising them at committee, there were still no efforts being made to listen to or address any of the concerns the members of this council were trying to raise. In January of this year, there was a massive resignation of the majority of the members of the women veterans council, because they claimed they were being ignored. We are now seeing that very same thing play out here with the Minister of National Defence .”
“There are a lot of things that women veterans have experienced during their time in the Canadian Forces, like ill-fitting equipment and other things that are not designed for our women in our military. The Liberals publicly claimed how important this study was for them and how much they cared about this cause. In the end, out of the recommendations that were made, as far as I can tell, the only thing that was acted upon was the idea of creating a women veterans council to advise the Minister of Veterans Affairs . Of course, what we have seen since that time is that the women who were appointed to this committee were telling us that they were not being listened to. They were expressing their frustration. They were expressing concern about the fact that they had no access to the Minister of Veterans Affairs or to the Government of Canada.”
“Here, they are trying to do what is politically expedient for them, but they are not listening. They are not hearing the concerns that are being raised. I have the honour of serving on the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs and fighting for our veterans there. Just a little over a year ago, we tabled what I would consider a landmark study on the experiences of women veterans. That is a study we did over several months. There were about 25 meetings to hear witness testimony. We heard some testimony from women veterans that was absolutely heartbreaking. I know many of the same veterans would have come to speak to the defence committee about the experiences they had, like with military sexual trauma.”
“Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot about it already, but clearly, in the defence committee, a lot of witnesses came forward, like veterans, and in particular, women veterans. They talked a lot about having the ability to choose and how the justice they needed to receive would be done. The Conservatives listened to that. We worked across party lines to see improvements to the bill. The Liberals did not seem to listen so much, which seems to be a pattern. They like to pretend that they care. They are about to have a majority government that they achieved through backroom deals. They think that means that now they do not have to work with others, work across party lines or listen to the victims. Instead, they can just ram through the changes they want to see.”
“Mr. Speaker, what the Liberals are doing with Bill C-11 follows what I would call a really troubling pattern of behaviour toward veterans in Canada, especially when it comes to women veterans. This is the same party that proudly claims to be feminist, but it will happily disregard what women are advocating for the second it no longer suits its political agenda. I will remind everyone in this House that it was the Liberals who propped up Justin Trudeau, the self-proclaimed feminist, who would immediately fire any woman from his caucus who dared to stand up to him. It would appear now that Liberals continue to follow in those footsteps. Much has been said already today about we are seeing happen here. [ Disturbance in gallery ]”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise to table a petition today that discusses Bill C-260 , the care not coercion act. This is in the wake of many veterans' experiences in this country. When they reached out to Veterans Affairs seeking help to live their lives, they were instead pushed towards the idea of medical assistance in dying. The petitioners are concerned with these instances and are calling on the government to support Bill C-260 , the care not coercion act.”
“I would also like to thank those in Vancouver and across Canada who stepped up in the aftermath of this awful attack to help all those affected and to start healing the community. All those affected should please note that the nation stands with them and admires their strength and perseverance.”
“Mr. Speaker, on April 26, as we commemorate the one-year anniversary of the terrible attacks in Vancouver at the Lapu-Lapu festival, we have in our prayers the victims, their families and the survivors. The entire nation was shocked at the news of the tragedy, and Canadians from coast to coast grieved for those who were lost. The Filipino community in Canada is an integral part of many communities, where they overwhelmingly volunteer and contribute to their surroundings. The Lapu-Lapu festival is a celebration recognizing Filipino heroes who embody the best values of Filipino culture. The values of family, community and hard work are shared among Filipinos and all Canadians. Today, we remember those who were lost and those whose lives were changed forever, through either injury or loss.”
“Canada should be diversifying our energy exports so we are more resilient to instability abroad and we reduce our dependence on the United States as our only customer. By expanding access to global markets and allowing projects to move forward here at home, we can strengthen our economy, support Canadian workers and ensure that Canadian energy reaches the allies that are demanding it.”
“Mr. Speaker, around the world, countries are searching for secure and reliable sources of energy. Many, including Japan, South Korea, India and Germany, have expressed a growing interest in Canadian energy. Canada has the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world and the ability to help meet that demand responsibly, yet despite years of promises, the government has not approved a single new pipeline to tidewater. Its Major Projects Office was supposed to speed up development, yet it has not approved a single project. Instead, Liberal policies like Bill C-69 , the west coast tanker ban and endless regulatory delays continue to block Canadian energy from reaching global markets.”
“Alberta's success shows what is possible nationwide if the federal government recognizes the power of tourism to diversify and grow our economy and create trade opportunities and prosperity for all Canadians.”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the incredible performance of our tourism sector. Leading the way is my home province of Alberta, guided by the work of Travel Alberta under the leadership of David Goldstein. Alberta's tourism sector reached $14.4 billion in visitor spending in 2024, receiving global recognition as a destination of choice from several leading international travel publications. Alberta is creating and promoting new must-visit destinations, improving air access and attracting additional private sector investment. I congratulate the hard-working businesses, operators and workers, who are key to Alberta's vibrant visitor economy. Tourism is proving essential to diversification, job creation and growth and delivering new opportunities in every corner of the province.”
“Mr. Speaker, that is an important point that I did not get a chance to speak to. This was a mistake that was made by the Liberals. They are going back to veterans who are in long-term care in one case, and to veterans who are disabled in another. They are demanding repayment in one case. The Liberals are retroactively changing legislation to avoid having to reimburse the veterans they were overcharging for long-term care. For years they were overcharged. The Liberals are retroactively changing the legislation not only to avoid a lawsuit but also to avoid paying back veterans who are in long-term care. It is sad.”
“That is a result of the kind of policies we have seen over the last 10 years under the Liberal government, and it is time for it to come to an end.”
“Mr. Speaker, what the member has touched on here highlights the biggest problem that we see. I spoke tonight to the veterans' situation, but there are a lot of other reasons to be concerned about what is going on here. At the end of the day, the most important thing to point out here is that the deficits and debt being created lead to inflation, and that inflation harms the people who are the most vulnerable in our society. It is not just veterans who are living on fixed incomes; it is also seniors, as the member mentioned. It is people who are lower-income. They are affected the most. We hear about the millions of people in this country who are now going to food banks who were not going before.”
“Mr. Speaker, there it is again. I mentioned it. The Liberals deny they are even making the cuts, and then they blame everybody else. They go back and blame a prime minister who was in office more than 10 years ago for the cuts being made today. The Liberals do not even want to admit to these cuts, but they are taking away from disabled veterans and from veterans who are in long-term care, while spending $78 billion of taxpayers' money that they do not even have today. It is future taxpayers' money. One place they will cut is funding for disabled veterans and veterans in long-term care. That is shameful and disgraceful, and it is sad to see a member on that side stand up and try to defend it, because that is disgraceful.”
“Frankly, the men and women who serve this country in uniform deserve everything they are entitled to. If this is the one place where the heartless government is going to cut, when it would spend $78 billion of taxpayer money that it does not have, that is shameful and disgraceful, and I cannot stand for it.”
“What I am hearing is that it is going to cut in half the number of cases that can be heard, which means that thousands of veterans this year will not have their case heard, will not get the benefits they need and therefore will not be able to move on with their life. What we are talking about is a government that is going to run a $78-billion deficit, on top of hundreds of billions of dollars it has already added to the debt. The one place the government chooses to cut is for the veterans, the men and women who have bled, given their limbs and their lives in some cases, for this country. The Liberals would tell disabled veterans and those in long-term care, once again just like Justin Trudeau once told them, that they are asking for more than we can give.”
“Often it takes actually going through an appeal process that then takes more years at the Veterans Review and Appeal Board before veterans finally are able to hopefully get, in most cases, at least when it gets to that point, the benefits they are entitled to. Now there is talk about laying off people at the Bureau of Pensions Advocates. They are the people who represent veterans because the amount of paperwork, bureaucracy and red tape required to go through the process is too much to manage. These are essentially lawyers who are available to veterans in order to deal with all that. When people are laid off at the Bureau of Pensions Advocates, it is going to mean delays for thousands of veterans. Roughly 10,000 cases are heard every year there.”
“I am being told by the people who are involved that ultimately that is going to mean likely two years or more in delays for veterans to have their cases or their appeals heard at the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. It is important at this point that I explain what veterans deal with when they put in an application to the government. Veterans often talk about delays, denials and being put off until, the government hopes, they give up and go away. The amount of time it can take is not measured in weeks or in months. It is measured in years, in most cases, for a veteran to get just their most basic claims they need for disability benefits or other things approved, or not.”
“Of course, with the inflation and everything else we have seen over the last 10 years under the Liberal government, they are already in a really difficult spot. This will likely put out on the street veterans who are not there now. This is the kind of thing we are talking about, heartless sorts of cuts, when the Liberals are spending money on all kinds of things. We heard my colleague just now talk about one example of that, but there are many, and then they choose to go after disabled veterans and those who are in long-term care. That is how the Liberals are trying to make up the money they are wasting elsewhere. We have heard recently as well that there are layoffs coming at what is called the Bureau of Pensions Advocates. For people who are not familiar with the process that veterans go through, I want to talk about that for a moment.”
“(1740) We are also hearing about repayments being demanded from veterans of their income replacement benefits. Veterans, numbering into the thousands, have received letters from the government telling them they must repay immediately thousands of dollars paid to them with respect to their disability status. We have heard of instances of over $100,000 that veterans are being asked to repay. It is being taken right out of their disability pension and other things. Imagine the impact this is going to have on a disabled veteran. We are talking about the most vulnerable veterans, the ones who need it the most, frankly. They are having it taken away from them when they are already living on a fixed budget and a fixed income.”
“I want to speak a little bit to those cuts and what their impact will be. The first one, of course, is that the government is changing pension indexing for disabled RCMP veterans, which is going to result in lower pensions over time for those veterans. This is buried on, I think, page 441 of the budget. The government is going to retroactively change the legislation to avoid paying back to veterans who were in long-term care money that they were overcharged. I mentioned already that the government is making a cut to the reimbursement rate for medical cannabis. What we are hearing from many veterans is that this will mean the products they have been able to use, which have been helpful to them, may not be available to them any longer because of that change in the rate. That will possibly put them down paths they do not want to end up on.”
“It has tried to claim that this would in fact make up the whole $4 billion in cuts. We are talking about a program that is a little over $200 million a year, and the government will be cutting the reimbursement rate by about a quarter. I am not sure how those numbers add up. Maybe there is some math I am not understanding. The government says it will be lifetime costs and those kinds of things, but that is a lot of pot over a long period of time. Clearly that is not an accurate representation of what the cuts are. What we have been able to learn through scouring the budget and through some of the things we have been hearing from veterans in the veteran community is that there seem to be about about five different areas thus far where we have been able to determine there are some cuts coming to services for veterans.”
“In fact, when the Minister of Veterans Affairs was asked about the cuts that are widely reported in the media and widely acknowledged by everyone except for the government, the Minister of Veterans Affairs said the government is not making cuts but is investing in veterans. However, it is very clear in the budget that $4 billion in cuts to veterans are coming. When the government is not even willing to be open and honest and admit to what the cuts are, it leaves veterans, their family members and the people who support our veterans wondering what they will be. What cuts are they going to face? Obviously, that has almost a worse impact than knowing what those cuts will be. The government has admitted to one of the cuts it will be making. It has said that it is going to cut the reimbursement rate for cannabis.”
“The one place where we should not have those kinds of cuts, the one place where every penny that is deserved should go, is to the services for those men and women who have served this country, in many cases have bled or given their limbs. That is the place where the government decided to find cuts. That is the one place it decided to take from: from the veterans who have given everything for this country. It saddens me, frankly, to even have to talk about this. What we know at this point is that there are about $4 billion in cuts in the budget when it comes to our veterans. The government will not admit to that.”
“Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of things I could talk about when it comes to the budget from the perspective of the challenges it brings. The first thing we can look at, of course, is the fact that there is $78 billion in new debt being created for future taxpayers. What I would like to do tonight, because I have had the opportunity to speak to some of those things before, is speak directly to the veterans in this country, to their families and to the people who support our veterans. That is because, while the government is spending $78 billion that it does not have, the one place, or one of the very few places, where it has decided to cut very deeply, frankly, are services for our veterans.”
“Anyone who tells the people of Amherst or anywhere in Canada that this is an issue that needs to be studied in a parliamentary committee or debated over months and months in the House is someone who is not serious about the needs of their constituents or of veterans. The time for political games with our veterans is over, and the time for action is now.”
“Whether it is changing the minister of veterans affairs every six months or cutting billions from veterans benefits, or whether it is ignoring the veterans who work tirelessly to help their fellow veterans or even offering veterans who are looking for help in living their lives medical assistance in dying instead, the Liberal government has made it very clear that veterans are not its priority. To any Canadian who is listening today, let me make this as clear as I can. I have served in government before, and the power to transfer a federal property such as the one in Amherst, Nova Scotia, is something the federal government has the mechanisms and the authority to do. All it needs to do is act.”