By Michael Blais
Back in 2011, Minister Steven Blaney would be the first to introduce me to the wondrous farce of streamlining services for veterans. Minister Julian Fantino subsequently took the concept to a new level, by parachuting in former CDS Walter Natynczyk as Deputy Minister to implement a conservative slash and burn agenda with military precision. Minister Erin O’Toole fully embraced the concept, and he supervised the dismantling of VAC through reduction of hundreds of front line employees and by closing district offices at the conclusion of the combat mission in Afghanistan when many veterans of the war were coming forward for assistance.
Veterans were not amused.
Liberal ministers Kent Hehr, Seamus O’Regan, Judy Wilson Raybould and Lawrence MacAuley continued the “streamlining” charade albeit from a liberal perspective. When held to account or challenged on departmental failures, DM Natynzcyk was faithfully at hand, blunting warranted criticism, undertaking the “we must do better” pantomime with varying degrees of sincerity year after year despite his ‘Command’s’ pervasive failures to fulfill the promises which politicians offer to veterans seemingly every election in exchange for our votes.
Veterans were not impressed.
This election is no different. Both the NDP and Conservative party leaders have declared they will clear the backlog if elected. Neither say how or why their efforts would be any different than those which the current government has undertaken. Factually, the Liberals did re-open the district offices as promised. Factually, hundreds of vital staffing positions cruelly negated by the Conservatives have been fulfilled and in theory, as more are employed and trained, the backlog problems should dissipate. The Liberals promised the case managers:client ratio would be reduced from the Conservatives’ untenable 40-1 down to 25-1. Three years later, there has been some progress and VAC claims to have attained a 33-1 ratio.
This is indeed better, but it is far from perfect. Thousands of veterans continue to wait beyond Mr. Trudeau’s promised 16 week threshold. Delays in adjudication on all levels persist, ranging from acknowledgement of mental and physical trauma to the subsequent approval of treatment options for medications. Exclusion and denial.
Q. Why is this?
A. Bureaucratic obstruction.
The National Post recently reported that VAC case managers spend 50% to 70% of their time processing paperwork. Case managers claim they are obstructed in providing expedient service due to “complicated or unnecessary business procedures” and layers of burdensome, unnecessary documentation. Veterans Affairs is not an insurance company. The obstructive, resource wasting, unnecessary documentation the DM and senior mandarins have implemented is adversely affecting the department’s ability to conform to the government’s promises. Let’s consider VAC employees to be the proverbial canary-in-the-coal-mine, as they sounded the alarm in respect to the catastrophic impact Conservative cuts would have on the veterans community. They are now once again sounding the alarm.
Q. Who suffers the consequences?
A.Veterans.
Who can blame veterans who become profoundly disappointed when seeking “promised” election entitlements, only to confront a system seemingly designed not to streamline, nor to accelerate due process in conformance of the Liberal mandate, but rather it is designed to complicate the process with layers of unnecessary documentation, multiple physicians reports and abysmal delays, far beyond the promised adjudication time frames.
Who is to blame?: Inept ministers or the adversities inherent within the cycle of ministerial replacement? The Liberals appointed four ministers during their last mandate none of whom proved capable of effecting the promised changes on backlogs, adjudication times or expedient service.
There has been one common and continuous leadership element at Veterans Affairs throughout these ministerial rotations:Deputy Minister Walter Natynczyk.
I admire the general’s record of military service, but after years of performance-objective failures, I personally no longer feel he is capable of demonstrating the leadership required to bring the department up to the standards promised. Bureaucratic progress on key issues has been glacial, and often obstructed by mandarins dictating policies corrupted by the “insurance company” mentality approach, which includes forcing veterans to cope with stringent processing documentation requirements designed to frustrate, obstruct, delay and deny.
Consequently, it is no surprise the trust between veterans and VAC’s bureaucratic leadership has been broken.
Without significant changes at VAC’s leadership, the status quo will remain.
Q. Who suffers the consequences?
A. Tragically, the disabled veterans and their families.
