The Right Honourable Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 RE:

Proposed Budget Cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Dear Prime Minister Harper; The Modern Day Veteran organizations above would like to express their serious concerns in regard to the proposed budget cuts announcement as it affects Veterans Affairs Canada. This cutback to VAC is highly unacceptable to our members - the Government's Deficit Reduction Plan will have an impact on veterans' benefits and the administrative components of VAC programs administrating these veterans programs. It is true that Canada's Traditional Veterans are aging; VAC continues to have significant responsibility to the more than 150,000 veterans who served Canada during the Second World War and Korea. Many of these veterans are presently suffering from their service-related disabilities together with other medical concerns brought on by the ravages of age. In addition there are the post Korean to present day veterans the modern day veteran -who will now and in the future need VAC veterans assistance and benefits. To close down or diminish the Department because WW2 and Korean veterans are diminishing in numbers is based on a false premise- there are still veterans around and will be for the foreseeable future. There will also be more veterans

added to the VAC workload as the post Korean Veterans including those involved in Peacekeeping and NATO Missions, the Gulf War and of course Afghanistan will be in need of assistance. Given the physical, mental and psychological concerns confronting these returning veterans, the job of Veterans Affairs will become more essential and intensive. Should VACs budgetary capacity be impacted, VACs capacity to administer benefits will not only be stretched to its limits but as well will be unable to fund crucial legislative improvements in order to fulfil its ongoing commitments to the overall veterans community. Traditional Veterans, have remaining serious outstanding concerns as to the significant gaps in the VAC Long Term Care Program, inequities in the Last Post Fund, Veterans Burial Regulations and anomalies in the VIP programs for widows. For Modern Day Veterans, the New Veterans Charter considered a living document by veterans organizations, is currently an unfinished work in progress and needs many changes to make it acceptable or even workable to the modern day veteran community. It remains our strong position that the debate is not so much a question of whether the lump sum payment is a preferable approach to the original Pension Act, but the fundamental question is does the New Veterans Charter sufficiently meet the needs and requirements of the Modern Day Veteran. The Traditional Veteran receives a pension, the modern day veterans regard the Charter as an insurance policy or buy out. For a great many modern day veterans the Charter provides little by way of benefits when they leave the Forces! We need a vigorous Veterans Affairs to address and champion these problems for our traditional and new modern day veterans. Not a Veterans Affairs Department that is being phased out or emasculated with the excuse that WW2 and Korean Veterans are being reduced in numbers.

The four Veteran Organization above maintain, that there is much more to accomplish in bolstering the Charter and that the Government and specifically Veterans Affairs needs the budgetary resources to fully implement ,co-ordinate and work on behalf of the 800.000 Canadian Veterans now living in Canada to address these issues. Further reforms and changes to traditional and modern day veterans will be discussed once the threat of Veterans Affairs as a department is addressed. Mr Brian Forbes has already in the excellent NCVA letter to you given you a List of issues to be addressed for traditional veterans. Given these significant concerns, this is clearly no time to be suggesting any cuts in the budget or the resources of Veterans Affairs Canada. The financial responsibility and debt of gratitude that all Canadians owe to Traditional and Modern Day Veterans should remain of paramount importance in any evaluation of a Federal Deficit Reduction Plan. President CAVUNP President CVPA President Gulf War President NATO Vets