For Mark Campbell, a now retired major with the Canadian Armed Forces, June 2, 2008 was a day that permanently changed his life.
Serving in Afghanistan, Campbell lost both his legs to a bomb that not only ended his career in the military but also altered his and his family’s life forever.
Yet, while men and women such as Campbell literally risked life and limb in service of our nation, the federal government still struggles to fairly compensate them for their sacrifices.
Many soldiers returned home with severe disabilities or debilitating mental health issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These direct effects from life in combat have taken their financial toll. For Campbell, it meant expensive renovations to his home to make it wheelchair accessible, and the loss of his wife’s income when she had to stay home to care for him.
Earlier this week, Ottawa announced a new one-time tax-free payment of $70,000 to veterans who suffered a traumatic injury or developed an acute disease as a result of their military service after March 31, 2006. The announcement adds to the maximum of $306,000 that is currently available to Canadian veterans who live with lasting impairments. New money also provides for a caregiver relief benefit of $7,200 that will help those like Campbell’s wife, but that is a far cry from the $60,000 a year she lost in wages.
While the funds bring compensation more in line with what regular workers receive in compensation for a workplace injury, it is a far cry from what our military personnel need and will only benefit a handful of people.
St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber takes issue with treating the money as a lump-sum payment instead of as pension payouts. Similar to the federal government’s ill-advised payouts to aboriginal residential school survivors, the money only serves to put people living with mental health and addiction issues at risk.
Other critics of the money point out it will not benefit those suffering from mental health issues such as PTSD and fails to address the issue of long-term security of injured veterans
Under the current suite of benefits available to Canadian veterans only those with the most severe of injuries receive any kind of life-long support. As Campbell points out, while the new announcement does address many of the recommendations from a review conducted on the New Veterans Charter, it ignored the pension issue. Veterans who are unable to transition into a civilian career receive 40 per cent less than what was paid out under the former pension act, he said.
It is ridiculous that our government leaders, who qualify for pensions amounting to an annual average of $60,000 after a measly six years of public service, continue to choose to nickel and dime those they order to risk their lives.
Our soldiers deserve to be compensated for being asked to put their lives on the line in defence of our country and our values. If we see fit to support politicians for the rest of their lives after spending six years in public service, some arguably doing very little, then our veterans deserve at least the same.
After all, dodging bullets is a lot harder than dodging questions.
