Local candidates in the October 21 federal election provided their thoughts on how they would help improve supports and services for Canadian veterans.

At this week’s forum, candidates were asked how they would help reduce the current 12 to 18 month wait times.

Incumbent Cathy McLeod says a Conservative government would get rid of that backlog within 24 months. She also spoke on recent funding cuts to hospitals for veteran services.

“I was as shocked as your were when we heard the news in terms of an arbitrary secret cutback, in terms of the payments to hospitals to hospitals for military services, it was unacceptable. And I think we do need to do better.”

Animal Protection Party Candidate Kira Cheesborough felt more creative solutions need to be discussed.

“We can make mobile offices so that it’s easier for veterans who may have incurred a physical disability or a disability that makes it difficulty for them to leave home to receive the services that they need.”

The Liberal’s Terry Lake bragged about the Liberals re-opening of nine veteran affairs after the last election, but says more needs to be done.

“We recognize that there’s still a backlog that we are still continuing to work on and we need to double our efforts. SO you have my commitment that we will absolutely do that and make sure services are available to you.”

The Communist Party’s Peter Kerek says as with every member of our society, the needs of vets should be taken care of.

“We have the wealth in this country to take care of everyone. We don’t need to keep on under-funding communities and having people live in desperation and food insecurity.”

The Green’s Iain Currie had one message for people who want to see change on any subject matter.

“The one solution to not making the same mistakes that have been made over the years and letting these important issues lapse during election period is to vote for something different this time.”

The NDP’s Cynthia Egli admitted to not having much of an answer on the subject.

Veteran Daniel Martin was the one who brought forward the issue at Tuesday’ night’s forum. He says he  was hoping to hear about an action plan from the candidates to correct the “years of injustices” against veterans.

“And all I heard was, ‘yeah, we know there’s a problem,” he said. “We should do more but nobody really said that we will do this, or this, or that.’ I think we heard, ‘yeah, we need to do more for our veterans. It’s a shame that this is happening.’ But there was no action plan, and that was pretty disappointing.”

Martin says he had decided who to vote for prior to the debate, but was open to change. But he unfortunately didn’t hear what he wanted.

“The Liberal Government has been saying, yeah, we’re going to invest. We’re going to reopen the houses that we need for the veterans.’ And they are saying that they opened all the nine houses, and that’s not true,” Martin added. “It’s not a fact. The news that they cut funding to hospitals so the vets now and the hospitals are out millions, because they have to treat them and they have to pay for it.”

Martin says he didn’t hear a solid action plan from either of the candidates, which he says was “pretty disappointing”

– With files from Victor Kaisar