ACVA Committee Report

Bloc Québécois Dissenting Opinion on the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs’ Report on Incorporating Service Dogs into the Rehabilitation Program of Veterans Affairs Canada

The Bloc Québécois would first like to thank each of the witnesses who appeared before the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs for its study on incorporating service dogs into the rehabilitation program of Veterans Affairs Canada. Service dogs have tremendous potential to improve the quality of life for many Veterans. The Bloc Québécois therefore supports having Veterans Affairs Canada increase funding for research on service dogs for the purpose of facilitating and expanding their use among Veterans in Quebec and Canada.

The Bloc Québécois supports regulating the training of service dogs. However, we are opposed to having the federal government take responsibility for this, as this would not respect jurisdictional boundaries. While services to Veterans is a federal responsibility, the delivery of health care is clearly a provincial responsibility. We believe that the Committee has lost sight of the fact that Canada is a federation and that many of the recommendations simply cannot be unilaterally enforced by the federal government. In order to better support Veterans and the general public, the Bloc Québécois reiterates that the federal government must increase the Canada Health Transfer to the provinces to cover 35% of their health care spending, and then index this amount at 6% per year. In this dissenting opinion, the Bloc Québécois wishes to make a few comments on the recommendations for the sake of realism and out of respect for Quebec’s autonomy.

Recommendation 2

Although the Bloc Québécois is in favour of Veterans Affairs Canada consulting the United States on their five-year pilot program to provide canine training to Veterans, we are opposed to this recommendation being conditional on the development of national standards.

Recommendation 3

The Bloc Québécois is very much in favour of Veterans Affairs Canada covering the costs of psychiatric service dogs for Veterans under the listed conditions. However, we are against establishing a set of overarching standards for service dogs and instead call on the federal government to rely on provincial standards. We believe it is imperative that the federal government work with Quebec and the provinces so that they can adopt the standards they deem appropriate, based on the information and findings presented by the Committee.

Recommendation 4

The Bloc Québécois rejects the premise of this recommendation, which suggests that the federal government should impose national standards. We reiterate our call for Veterans Affairs Canada to recognize provincial standards, or if the absence of such standards, to direct the provinces to develop them, while not interfering in their jurisdiction.

Recommendation 5

The Bloc Québécois opposes this recommendation, since once again it seeks to impose standards on the provinces rather than respect jurisdictional boundaries.

The Bloc Québécois believes that the report fails to mention provincial jurisdictions and that this condemns it to be, in theory as well as in practice, inoperative. At the very least, the Bloc Québécois would have found it more appropriate had the Committee recommended that Veterans Affairs Canada consult with the provinces on establishing such standards instead of imposing them. For example, Quebec could choose to work with Veterans Affairs Canada on developing training standards applicable only to Quebec, just as it could choose to approach the Council of the Federation with the idea of harmonizing the rules for accessing places, buildings and public transportation for service dog owners. Clearly, the Bloc Québécois believes that the initiative to develop national standards or harmonize them with other provinces is a provincial responsibility, not a federal one.

Apart from of our objection to national training standards being imposed on the provinces by Veterans Affairs Canada, the Bloc Québécois supports the rest of the Committee’s recommendations. Service dogs hold great potential for improving the quality of life for Veterans suffering from psychological disorders developed during their military service. There are many aspects of this report that support this potential, without encroaching on the jurisdictions of Quebec and the provinces.

In closing, the Bloc Québécois wishes to add a new recommendation to the report to better support Veterans and the general public with respect to health care.

New recommendation from the Bloc Québécois

That the federal government immediately increase the Canada Health Transfer to the provinces to cover at least 35% of their health care spending and index it at 6% per year in order to improve and maintain the quality of health care provided to the public, including Veterans.