Then there's former legion chaplain Sandra Tankard who's livid over Veterans Affairs revelations. Sandra says, "The Treasury Board take back of 1.1B from Veterans Affairs is a 'kick in the teeth'." Adding, "That is money that rightly belonged to Veterans Affairs to provide the service to the Afghan vets and that they have returned it to the treasury so [Finance Minister] Joe Oliver can say we have a surplus is, well, it's beyond words," Tankard said. "It's just beyond words."
Liberal veterans critic Frank Valeriote said, "Ex-soldiers who've been denied benefits will look at the unspent funds and feel hoodwinked, completely abandoned and wonder why they've made sacrifices for their country. “It is reprehensible and unconscionable what they’re doing so that the government can create an image of fiscal responsibility,” he said.
Apparently the use of lapsed funding to reduce the federal deficit is an exercise that’s being practiced across all departments, austerity for us, including veterans, who've seen local offices closed across the country, seen services reduced and become so difficult to access their usage is greatly reduced. Frank Valeriote and Sandra Tankard know Harpo and his henchmen are balancing the budget on the backs of the poorest and the most needy.
Tax cuts, like income splitting that are meaningless the poor, subsidies to the fossil fuel industry that bankrolls the Conservatives play, and austerity for the rest of us, that's the song being sung by the spinners here and throughout the capitalist world. Hopefully this, Harpo's most outrageous betrayal of his oath of office, will cause Canadians of all political stripes to WAKE UP.
