[Kavvy]

I have some random questions/ random thoughts to the community, which I know I could Google, so I do apologize, but I would like to hear the thoughts from people on here.

Also, this post sort of turned into a random splattering of my thoughts, so beware before reading. Lastly, I assume I am over simplifying everything, but hopefully the general points do stand.

Basically, my understanding is from a government benefit perspective we do not treat our veterans all that well, in fact, we should be embarrassed how we treat them. I would like to know if my understanding is correct, prior to writing my MP Kent Hehr.

My general questions/comments are:

-In my view, if a vet needs psychology services due to results of their service, that benefit should be available to them for a lifetime on a x times per month basis. Yes there are issues where we need to declare what is a result of their service, but in general, if someone served in combat, psychology services services should just be given to them for life.

Do Vets have free access to something like this? I hear about vets with PTSD doing terrible things, including suicide (one a couple Christmas's ago just west of Calgary on the highway), and while this may not 100% solve these issues, if we aren't offering psychology services, we aren't even trying.

Is offering psychology services for life to all vets who see combat too much, and if so, why?

Of course the same would go for physical rehab.

-We have a veterans food bank. Why? If a Vet can't put food on the table, don't we owe it to them to give them a handout if they are making less then an $x /year post service? Abuse of the system will occur, but this is one group of people where I would rather error in giving a little too much then too little.

-If the Vet system is as bad as I assume it is (hopefully it isn't), I think Canadians would almost unanimously support a small tax increase if the money went to veteran affairs with a clear mandate on what to spend it on.

-.ie. If currently Veterans affairs has a budget of 25 grand per vet per year (made up number by me), the government commits to locking that plus inflation in future budgets, plus the lump sum monies from the small tax increase (to ensure the tax increase doesn't just go to general budget). I use a $/vet as just looking at a baseline budget plus inflation doesn't account for times where we may have many more or many less vets then normal.

-The government wouldn't be given money directly to vets, it would first spend the money on a study on how to better serve our vets with the money.



Basically, in my view, if you get shot at for my nation, and have mental issues, physical issues, food issues later in life, you shouldn't ever need to worry about having enough access to the services which will help you with these issues. Is this already fixed and a non-issue?