Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs

Comité permanent des anciens combattants

For immediate release

Ottawa, October 17, 2018 -

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs will travel to the Northwest Territories from October 21 to 24, 2018, to meet with the Canadian Rangers. This trip is the second part of the study on needs and issues specific to Indigenous veterans began in the spring.

On October 22, seven MPs will be in Yellowknife to meet with representatives of the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group. Meetings are also planned with veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and representatives of Service Canada, the Military Family Resource Centre and Joint Task Force North. The following day, the delegation will travel to Behchoko, a Tlicho community on the northern tip of Great Slave Lake, to meet with Ranger patrol members. In the evening, in Yellowknife, the delegation will hear from Indigenous veterans.

Since the beginning of this study, about ten meetings have been held in Ottawa and about thirty witnesses have been heard. As well, in May, seven Committee members visited Halifax and Millbrook, Nova Scotia; the Six Nations Reserve and Ohsweken, Ontario; Beauval, Saskatchewan; and Victoria, British Columbia.

The following themes being addressed in this study are:

o Support offered to Indigenous veterans by Veterans Affairs Canada;

o Specific needs of Indigenous veterans living in remote areas;

o Treatment of Indigenous veterans who served in the First World War, the Second World War and the Korean War;

o Treatment of Indigenous veterans who have served in modern conflicts;

o Issues concerning veterans who served with the Canadian Rangers; and

o Services offered by Veterans Affairs Canada to Indigenous veterans who served with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

At the conclusion of this study, a report will be tabled in the House of Commons with recommendations to the government on the benefits and services offered to Indigenous veterans. For more information on the study Needs and Issues Specific to Indigenous Veterans, see https://bit.ly/2wjWMAI.