There are clear parallels in Canada with ongoing U.S. Veterans Affairs crisis

Canadians watching the unfolding crisis at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) inevitably are going to draw comparisons with the ongoing controversy surrounding its counterpart here.

The scale of the Americans' problem is much bigger, but the central accusation is the same: The government is failing in its duty to provide the necessities for veterans suffering from physical and psychological wounds.

U.S. President Barak Obama promised Wednesday to get to the bottom of the mushrooming scandal involving one VA hospital, and possibly others, falsifying records to cover up long waiting lists for veterans seeking treatment.

It's alleged a Phoenix, Ariz., hospital kept two sets of books to avoid violating rules requiring veterans to be seen by doctors within a set period of time. The practice is alleged to have led to the deaths of 40 veterans awaiting treatment, according to news reports.

Obama has ordered two separate reviews of the allegations.

“It is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and I will not tolerate it. Period," he said, according to Time. “Once we know the facts, I assure you that if there is misconduct it will be punished."

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Obama, however, opted not to fire Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, a decorated Vietnam veteran and former army chief of staff whom Obama appointed in 2009 to reform the VA.

“Ric Shinseki I think serves this country because he cares deeply about veterans and he cares deeply about the mission,” Obama said, according to Time.

“And I know that Ric’s attitude is if he does not think he can do a good job on this, and if he thinks he’s let our veterans down, then I’m sure that he is not going to be interested in continuing to serve.”

The problems facing U.S. veterans have a familiar ring to Canadians – long waiting times to get help, phone help lines that lead nowhere, parsimony when it comes to awarding benefits.

The scale is different, to be sure. The U.S. VA is a vast bureaucracy of some 280,000 people, operating more than 1,700 hospitals, clinics and other health-care facilities, as well as many other programs. Its proposed 2014 budget of about US$153 billion is roughly half the entire Canadian federal budget. By comparison, Canada's Veterans Affairs Department had a budget of $3.5 billion in the last fiscal year.

But military experts see distinct similarities.

“We may not have the same scale and scope, in terms of sheer numbers — but the parallels facing Canadian and U.S. veterans are scary,” a senior Canadian military liaison in Washington told the Toronto Star on condition of anonymity.

“Veterans on both sides of the border are feeling left out, alone, with the closing of VA offices, referrals of people to 1-800 numbers, no more case managers.

"The needs are going to be huge when you take into account the physical and mental damage our people have suffered. I think it’s a bad situation to be in no matter, regardless of whether you come back to Canada or the U.S.”

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The Conservative government has been hammered by critics who accuse it of latching onto Canada's military heritage for political purposes while short-changing its veterans.

The government has faced protests over the closure of regional Veterans Affairs offices, replacing disability pensions with lump-sum payments and moving too slowly to provide psychological counselling for returnees from the Afghanistan mission suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a class-action lawsuit by Afghan veterans over the government's overhaul of benefits, federal lawyers argued Ottawa has no special obligation to veterans, thought to stem from a pledge made during the First World War that veterans would be looked after.

The problem with veterans' services on both sides of the border is not so much politicians as with the bureaucracy, retired Col. Pat Stogran, Canada’s first ground commander in Afghanistan and Canada’s first Veterans Ombudsman, told the Star.

“You look at what is happening in the States and Eric Shinseki has hit a brick wall of bureaucracy,” he said. “He had the respect of his soldiers. He came into the VA with fire in his belly and today he looks like a broken man."

There's a disconnect between politicians who promise billions for veterans' services and senior bureaucrats who choke at the prospect of actually spending it, Stogran told the Star.

"That culture is manifest, in the two veterans’ bureaucracies in the U.S. and Canada and it is a culture that transcends the elected officials of the day," he said.