Local MP Blake Richards says Veterans Affairs has lost focus on how to serve the needs of veterans.

"There are some good people working there who are trying to make a difference, but I feel like there's a lot of veterans being left out in the cold. Literally, there are thousands of cases of homeless veterans," said Richards, who is the Conservative Veteran Affairs shadow minister.

"There are so many veterans that I hear from every day, waiting a year, two years, five years, to get benefits and services that they need, and that should never be the case."

He says that includes veterans in his Banff-Airdrie constituency facing roadblocks when navigating through the bureaucracy.

"We're happy to help, but it's sad that we have. I hear so often from veterans whose injuries clearly came from their service to our country, and they have to prove over and over and over again that those injuries are related to their service. In my mind. someone that served this country and has injuries, let's take care of them, period."

The recent federal budget included a commitment to increase spending by $156 million over five years to address long-standing delays and backlogs for those who have served with the Canadian Armed Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The Royal Canadian Legion is one of the organizations that welcome the increase but are pressing to get more details.

“We are happy to see this proposed spending,” states Bruce Julian, Legion Dominion president. “But it needs to be properly targeted.  We would like more clarity on exactly how it will be spent. This funding should go where it’s needed most, and in a way that directly benefits Veterans and clears the backlog.”

The federal government faced pressure when $920 million went unspent in 2021-22, representing the largest lapse at Veterans Affairs in a single year, and compares to nearly $1.1 billion that went unspent over a combined seven years under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.

Veterans Affairs spokesman Marc Lescoutre blamed several issues for the unprecedented lapse, including problems predicting how many veterans would apply for assistance and the fact that fewer people accessed in-person health services than expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2023-24 budget plan references reductions made by the Stephen Harper Conservative government.

"After significant staff reductions were made at Veterans Affairs Canada between 2009 and 2014, these cuts and the rise in applications after 2015 led to unacceptable wait times for too many veterans," it states.

Harper slashed spending in an attempt to balance the budget ahead of the 2015 federal election.

Richards was in town on Apr. 8 to present official Vimy Foundation pins to some veterans at the Royal Canadian Legion.