‘Sense of relief’: Veteran-led lawsuit against feds could mean multi-million-dollar payout

About 330,000 veterans receiving disability payments from the federal government might soon receive their share of a multi-million-dollar settlement after lawyers identified accounting errors in the Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) payment process.

On Nov. 8, a final settlement agreement was signed on behalf of the veterans and their estates with VAC for a “miscalculation of benefits”, which dated back about 20 years.

Dennis Manuge, a Canadian Armed Forces veteran living in Ostrea Lake, N.S., said he felt “a sense of relief” when he heard the news.

“I’m one of the few Canadians, I believe, that have brought two class-actions against the Government of Canada to a successful conclusion,” he said, referring to the integral role he played in a previous winning settlement against the federal government in 2013 regarding military pension claw-backs.

The 53-year-old said he’s spent the last decade working to recover from injuries he suffered during his service. He said this recent victory, is “about legacy and standing up for what’s right.”

“They (Veterans Affairs Canada) are incredibly slow learners. I think that’s any government bureaucracy, it’s so big, so cumbersome,” he said.

Daniel Wallace, a Halifax-based lawyer working on the case, said although the total repayment amount is dependent on how many veterans submit a claim. He estimates the total figure could be as much as $817 million.

“People were underpaid for such a long period of time,” he said. |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/10098406/veterans-affairs-canada-multi-million-disability-payment-settlement-dennis-manuge/| globalnews.ca/news/10098406/ve…

#cdnpoli #nspoli #veterans #disability #benefits #pension #services #miscalculations

‘No brainer’: Alberta panel hears callers urge province to split from Canada Pension Plan

The panel hearing feedback on whether Alberta should quit the Canada Pension Plan heard multiple callers tell them Thursday it’s time to embrace a “no-brainer” provincial program.

“I think it’s time we start looking after Albertans,” a caller identified as Gary from Sherwood Park told the panel led by former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning in its fourth telephone town hall.

“We already send (away) billions of dollars in equalization payments. Here’s an opportunity for Albertans to be winners.”

Caller Darlene said Alberta is taken for granted by Ottawa and that other provinces will oppose an Alberta pension plan out of self-interest.

“Albertans should stand up for themselves,” she said.

She said Premier Danielle Smith’s government has to do a better job of reassuring Albertans who are “scared of change.”

Caller Keith said Albertans are paying in more than they are getting back, and that lower contributions and higher benefits from an Alberta plan are appealing.

“It’s a no-brainer,” said Keith. “Any little extra bit would help.” |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/10098489/canada-pension-plan-alberta-provincial-town-hall/| globalnews.ca/news/10098489/ca…

#abpoli #cpp #app #smith #manning #Dinning #callers #NoBrains

Preston Manning recommends further politicizing public health

Preston Manning, 81, has dropped his doorstopper recommending we quit just listening to scientists and physicians in the event of another pandemic and give equal time to “alternative scientific narratives.”

Have I got this straight? Preston Manning just made a recommendation to give politicians absolute authority over public health that was so excellent the Alberta government accepted it a week before they got it?

Can someone remind me why we gave the superannuated godfather of the Canadian right a budget of $2 million and paid him $253,000 in personal pin money if we weren’t going to wait for his recommendations and at least talk about them for a day or two before implementing them?

Manning, 81, dropped his 116-page doorstopper report and another 253 pages of appendices advising us to stop putting doctors in charge of public health emergencies and quit listening so much to scientists and medical researchers in the event of another pandemic so we can give equal time to “alternative scientific narratives.”

The six-member “Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel” chaired by the former Reform Party leader and son of a Social Credit Alberta premier, would like us to strengthen individual rights at the expense of collective survival rights in the face of another deadly pandemic.

The panel’s recommendations included such gems as calling for the government to be “expressly forbidden” from halting in-person school classes during a public emergency, unless there are undefined “exceptional circumstances.”

Another recommendation calls for amending the Employment Standards Code and Health Professions Act to make it easier for anti-vaccine health care workers to endanger their patients and co-workers in health care facilities.

Seven days earlier the government announced its plan to dismantle Alberta Health Services (AHS) and put all the responsibility for running it in the Premier’s Office, which is pretty much the same thing as the Manning Panel wants. Please don’t tell us the government’s right hand didn’t know what its left hand was doing! |Read more https://www.cnn.com/business/tech/meta-political-ads-2020-election-lies/index.html| cnn.com/business/tech/meta-pol…

#abpoli #manning #smith #ucp #healthcare #destruction

‘Hard pill to swallow’: Seniors respond to rent increases at southwest Calgary retirement home

Local seniors facing a 55 per cent hike in their rent at a southwest Calgary retirement home will now see that increase cut in half, but some say that’s still too high of a price to pay while living on a fixed income.

In late September, 57 people living at Silvera’s Westview Residence West in Glamorgan were notified of a rent increase scheduled to kick in on Jan. 1, 2024.

Their rent was expected to increase from $1,000 to $1,360 per month and it also came with a mandatory $195 fee to pay for amenities such as shuttle services, access to a guest suite for family fitness classes and a half-dozen meals per month.

On Wednesday Silvera announced that it heard the concerns of its residents and would make rental adjustments. It said that the mandatory monthly fees would be removed for the next year, making the difficult decision to cut the services entirely.

An originally planned rent increase of 55 per cent would also now be adjusted to a 23 per cent uptick instead starting March 1, 2024.

Sheila Leier moved in last year and will see her monthly rent now increase from $1,275 to $1,568. She appreciates the adjustment but said it’s still too expensive.

“I might have to move now somewhere else. I put my name in for about 25 places around the city for independent seniors but they’re all full. Something has to be done because it’s not only happening to us, it’s a huge impact on seniors but it’s happening all over the city with people unable to afford rent.”

Alberta’s Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, Jason Nixon responded to concerns Thursday over the rent increase Calgary seniors are facing.

“The alternative is what some others have called for through things like rent control, which would be devastating for the rent market and we make tens of thousands of people homeless, and we’re not addressing the situation there, we have to increase the supply of housing.”

(Steve’s note The UCP doesn’t want to limit the profits for energy companies, insurance costs or contractors. This tells you who the UCP were elected to serve)

A University of Calgary professor agrees it would make housing more scarce.

“It really means that developers kind of pull back and say, ‘You know what? Maybe we shouldn’t invest in building more multifamily housing.’ And what that does is make housing more scarce going forward,” said Alexander Whalley, associate professor of business and economics at the U of C.

“It really has these unintended consequences.”

Not all experts agree on that front. |Read more https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/hard-pill-to-swallow-seniors-respond-to-rent-increases-at-southwest-calgary-retirement-home-1.6648451| calgary.ctvnews.ca/hard-pill-t…

#abpoli #yyc #calgary #seniors #FixedIncome #rent #Inflation #greed #ucp #nixon