Veterans Affairs Canada first floated the idea of lengthening its timelines last fall following criticism over former service members waiting months longer than promised to get support — or even find out whether they qualified for help. Veterans Affairs said it wanted to give injured ex-soldiers a more "realistic" assessment of when they could expect to hear back about their requests of assistance. Now Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay's spokesman is confirming the idea has been scrapped following consultations with veterans and their families, and that Ottawa will continue using the existing targets. "It is great that they're maintaining the service standards, but they're not maintaining the service level to the veterans because they don't have the staff," said Vaillancourt. "How can you expect to ever meet the service standards and the quality of care for the veterans if you're not even moving the marker on the staffing levels?"

Source: CBC News April 30, 2019 22:52 UTC