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Regarding the March 7 Canadian Press article "Cuts loom at Veterans Affairs: Tories refuse to shield department": Our government will maintain veterans’ benefits while providing our veterans with the hassle-free service they have asked for. We will be relentless in fighting the NDP’s attempt to maintain cumbersome, bureaucratic red tape within the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Since 2006, our government has increased funding for veterans’ programs. We have made significant enhancements to the New Veterans Charter, we supported the Helmets to Hardhats program in Canada, and we announced our "Cutting Red Tape for Veterans Initiative." We have consistently delivered for our veterans and their families, unlike the NDP, which has a shameful record of voting against measures that aim to support our veterans and our men and women in uniform.
The NDP has voted against the creation of the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman, expanding the Veterans Independence Program to survivors who require assistance, and additional funding to enhance the New Veterans Charter which provides our most seriously injured veterans with the support they need as they transition to civilian life.
Earlier this week, the NDP voted against $3.6 billion in funding that will provide veterans and their families with support in the upcoming fiscal year. Time and time again, our government has brought forward initiatives to help improve the quality of life of our nation’s heroes. On every occasion, the NDP has chosen to not support the brave men and women who served and continue to serve our country.
The NDP’s actions have proven that they would rather protect a bloated, inefficient bureaucracy than support maintaining benefits for our veterans. Our government proposed an amendment to the motion which would allow us to maintain veterans’ benefits while cutting into cumbersome, bureaucratic red tape and the NDP refused.
Our government will continue to make the necessary budgetary adjustments to ensure our veterans have the care and support they need. We will maintain veterans’ benefits and continue to bring forward initiatives that increase support for our veterans. We hope that the NDP will show their support by improving their dismal voting record. Actions speak louder than words.

Minister Blaney this has to be the poorest excuse I have ever read to an opposition parties motion!

The intent of the motion was to exempt VAC from budget and employee cuts to the most under served customers from a Federal Department. You are beating the drum that your department is working hard to eliminate red tape to make life easier for veterans. How are you going to identify these red tape traps if you are going to sacrifice 500 employees to the TB? After these red tape traps are indentified where are you going to get the money to correct it?

At the October 2011 Stakeholder meeting your Deputy Minister Suzanne Tining admitted that VAC was in the "stoneage" and needed 5 years to digitize VAC to catch up to modern society. Where are you going to get this money if you are willingly, without one word of protest, sacrificing $450 million dollars from the VAC budget over the next two years?

You are going to be known in the history books as the Minister of Veterans Affairs that stood by and did not utter one word of protest while veterans are being raped by the Treasury Board.