Tensions boiled over at the Commons veterans affairs committee after Veterans Affairs Minister Jill McKnight repeatedly refused to explain how staffing and spending reductions would affect veterans, prompting angry exchanges and accusations of evasiveness from MPs.Blacklock's Reporter says committee members pressed McKnight after cabinet signalled a 10% reduction in the federal payroll, a move that could directly affect Veterans Affairs Canada, which employed 3,783 people last year and operated with a $7.8 billion budget, according to its departmental plan.McKnight insisted no cuts were being made to veterans’ programs, despite acknowledging internal adjustments.“I would like to be clear, we are not cutting the benefits and services provided to veterans,” McKnight testified. “We are making an adjustment.”She rejected the characterization of reductions altogether, arguing the government was increasing support.“This budget is actually demonstrating a spend in veterans,” McKnight said. “We are spending.”Conservative MP Fraser Tolmie of Moose Jaw–Lake Centre challenged the minister’s language, questioning how reductions could be described as spending..“When I spend money, I put money into something,” Tolmie said. “So when I hear you are cutting, that is not a spend. That is a reduction. Can we try that answer again?”McKnight repeated that benefits and services were not being cut, saying the department was focused on stabilizing and modernizing service delivery. Tolmie pushed back, asking whether the current system was unstable or outdated.“No,” McKnight replied, again stating the government was spending.Tolmie, a former Royal Canadian Air Force officer, said the testimony failed to reflect the reality veterans face.“Many of the veterans I am speaking to don’t get timely service,” he said. “They get denied, delayed and then the term is they die because they have been dealing with that for so long.”Tolmie said he has personally been denied services and described what he called a broken transition process for those leaving the military.“They don’t get service. They get a half-day, a cup of coffee and a cucumber sandwich and are told to go to a website and figure it out on their own,” he said..Veterans, he added, are frustrated and angry as rumours of cuts circulate.“When they hear cuts are coming and they are not even getting the basic services they require, what kind of emails do you think I’m getting?” Tolmie said. “I am absolutely furious right now. I feel like I have been reading a glossy brochure that tells us how wonderful things are, but we’re not recognizing the problem. This machine is broken.”Bloc Québécois MP Jean-Denis Garon of Mirabel pressed McKnight on whether layoffs were planned within the department and whether she had communicated workforce targets to the finance minister.“This budget does not have cuts,” McKnight replied.Garon asked whether McKnight could guarantee no public servants would be laid off over the next three years. McKnight again avoided the question, repeating that the budget represented a spend.“We have a right in Parliament to receive answers,” Garon said. “My question is super clear and I’m not getting an answer.”He went on to ask whether the government had communicated a workforce reduction target to her department.“Right now we have received funding through this Budget 2025 to stabilize and modernize the benefits and services that we deliver to veterans,” McKnight said.“Are you actually aware of what’s going on in your department?” Garon asked. “My 14-year old would have understood my question by now.”McKnight did not respond.The first-term Liberal MP for Delta, B.C., a former executive director of the Delta Chamber of Commerce, was appointed minister on May 13, becoming the eighth Veterans Affairs minister in six years.
