Homeless Veterans will wait even longer for overdue support

Note: In the afternoon of June 13, the motion was re-introduced and unanimously passed. The Legion is pleased to see this commitment to creating a plan to end Veteran homelessness in Canada.

OTTAWA, ON, 13 June, 2019 – The Royal Canadian Legion is left shocked and dismayed at the delay of a vote on a motion for a plan to end Veteran homelessness in Canada. The delay was the result of procedure, with time running out before the motion could be discussed to the degree some parliamentarians thought was needed.

“How much discussion do we actually need to figure out that this country has to come up with a plan to end Veteran homelessness?” asks Thomas D. Irvine, CD, Dominion President. “This is an unacceptable outcome related to a motion that had all-party support. We need less talk and more action. I fear political posturing is coming at the expense of our Veterans’ needs, which are literally being put on the back burner.”

The Legion recently participated in a public show of support for the motion put forward by Member of Parliament Neil Ellis. The motion called for a plan to end Veteran homelessness by 2025. The Legion itself has been pushing for a strategy to end Veteran homelessness for years. It is one of the organization’s top advocacy issues as outlined in an open letter to all Members of Parliament in April.

The development of any comprehensive national Veterans’ homelessness strategy or plan would need to be coordinated with all levels of government and service providers and would need to outline immediate concrete actions.

“Through our Leave the Streets Behind program, and the provision of other supports, the Legion is doing what it can to help combat this problem,” says Dave Gordon, the Legion’s Homeless Veterans Representative. “But we, and other not-for-profit organizations across this country are being left to unfairly deal with an overwhelming problem. This is inexcusable. One homeless Veteran - or citizen - is one too many.”

“Our government needs to step up with some sort of interim measure to help our homeless Veterans while our parliamentarians decide when they’ll have time to bring this motion back to the floor,” adds Irvine.

For more information on how the Legion supports Veterans, visit:  Legion Support