The Bloc Quebecois is blasting Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) for failing to act to correct a situation that puts French-speaking veterans at a disadvantage compared to their English-speaking brethren.
The Bloc Quebecois points out that a report by the Veterans Ombudsperson unveiled in 2018 showed that French-speaking veterans waited an average of 25 weeks longer than English-speaking veterans for a notice of decision on their application for disability benefits.
Bloc Veterans Affairs critic Luc Desilets blames the department for not proving that the situation was improving.
Data eventually revealed that the average gap had shrunk to eight weeks in 2021 and then to 0.6 weeks in the first two months of 2022. These figures were reportedly provided by the government at the last meeting of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.
However, Desilets pointed to a recent briefing note from Library of Parliament analysts that tells a different story. Between July and September 2021, the median wait time for francophone veterans was 76 weeks, while the median wait time for anglophones was 20.4 weeks. It is unclear what happened in the early months of 2022.
The Member of Parliament for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles concluded that the situation has not been corrected and he is calling on Minister Lawrence MacAulay to come clean on the disparities in treatment times between French and English-speaking clients.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 25, 2022.
