The acronym “ACVA” combines “Anciens Combattants” with “Veterans Affairs”
Photo Credit: Parliament of Canada
Esprit de Corps Magazine April 2020 // Volume 27 Issue 3
Let's Talk About Women in the Military – Column 13
by Military Woman
Question:
The Parliamentary Committee on Veterans Affairs – what’s new for women Veterans?
Answer:
The 43rd Parliament of Canada’s all-party Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs (ACVA) held its inaugural meeting February 18, 2020. The first order of business was to elect Members of Parliament (MPs) Bryan May, Phil Coleman and Luc Desilets as chair and vice-chairs, respectively. Notices of motions were then given for six topics for the committee to potentially study – Commemoration, Caregivers, “Minority” Veterans, Education Training Benefit, veteran benefit application backlogs and service dogs. You can review (by audio or transcript) this, and all subsequent, ACVA meetings at http://ourcommons.ca/committees.
What’s of interest from this first ACVA meeting from a military woman’s perspective? First, let’s look at the committee itself – 3/12 or 25% committee members are women, and they represent three different parties – Conservative (Cathay Wagantall), Liberal (Marie-France Lalonde), and NDP (Rachel Blaney). Some will think that this is a fair representation level, others will not, but we can all agree that it fell short of seeing any women elected to one of the three committee chair positions.
Second, let’s look at the proposed topics for study. Darrell Samson, Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Veterans Affairs, started the priority list off with “Commemoration.” Always an important veteran topic, making it a “safe” minority government priority to lead with. One hopes, government will include the experience and voice of women veterans within all future veteran commemoration programming and external communication strategies.
The Parliamentary Secretary then asked for a review of the services and supports for injured veterans and their caregivers. For many, this is the most important of the veteran study topic areas. Caregivers, both formal paid and informal unpaid, are still largely assumed to be women, not men.
One hopes, the study will include both identifying the needs unique to caregiving civilian male spouses, and to injured and ill veterans without spousal caregiving support.
Andy Fillmore MP proposed the third motion, a study on “Women, LGBTQ2+ and Racialized” or “minority” veterans. Although there are clearly unmet needs worthy of more study for all these groups individually and collectively, perhaps it’s time for a new approach. Perhaps these unmet needs would be better served by a study on how to best ensure equitable care, benefits, and end wellbeing outcomes for all veterans. Doubling down on sex and gender-based analysis throughout Veteran Affairs Canada (VAC) being one obvious answer.
MP Lalonde requested a study on the Education Training Benefit. A benefit more single parents would be able to use if it came with subsidization for children’s daycare costs.
MP Alex Ruff, a highly decorated veteran, proposed a review into the backlog of VAC benefits application. The Veteran's Ombudsman has already confirmed that women wait longer for VAC claim decisions than men do. One hopes that any study on this topic will include the obvious fastest and smartest way to alleviate the backlogs over the long term, which is to put more efforts into prevention. The capture and analysis of VAC claim trends, fed back to CAF as lessons learned, can and would assist in the prevention of unnecessary injuries and illnesses altogether.
MP Dane Lloyd, an army reservist, rounded up the motions requesting a long overdue and needed service dog efficacy and standards study.
Interestingly, despite specific mention in the Speech from the Throne, there is no mention today about veteran homelessness, male or female.
Regardless of which study topics end up being selected (check out the 25 February 2020 ACVA meeting for that answer), hopefully all ACVA committee members have completed their GBA+ training and will “lead by example” to ensure that the needs of all veterans will be forefront in their deliberations. When applied properly sex and gender-based analysis should result in all veterans feeling valued, respected, and fairly treated.
