Statement made on 03 March 2009 by Senator Lorna Milne (retired)
Hon. Lorna Milne:
Honourable senators, in response to a question that I posed to the Leader of the Government in the Senate on November 26 of last year, she noted that veterans are happy with the treatment of veterans by this government. That may well be a good thing, but at the time, I was asking about the needs of veterans' widows, not veterans themselves.
Since then, it has become clear that this government does not care about Canadians. I have heard again from Joyce Carter, the outspoken advocate for improving access to the Veterans Independence Program. In a letter dated January 23, 2009, Ms. Carter indicated that there are still far too many Canadian veterans and their spouses who are having to lobby this Conservative government for benefits that had been previously promised to them.
With this in mind, I ask the Leader of the Government in the Senate why this Conservative government is choosing to ignore the Prime Minister's promise to the widows of veterans to extend the VIP program to all widows of Second World War veterans and Korean War veterans.
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