Military cemeteries need more funding to keep them from falling into disrepair

The Liberals have been repeatedly criticized for refusing to make permanent investments in Veterans Affairs operations over the past few years.

An internal report by Veterans Affairs Canada is raising red flags over the country’s military graves and cemeteries, warning that more permanent funding is needed to keep them from falling into disrepair.

The report is the result of an internal audit following up on a similar review six years ago. At that time, nearly 45,000 out of the estimated 207,000 graves of Canada’s veterans were in a state of disrepair because of a lack of resources.

The Trudeau government subsequently committed nearly $25 million over five years in temporary funding starting in 2018, which the new report says has largely addressed the problem by facilitating thousands of repairs.

Yet auditors found that without a permanent increase to the department’s funding, that success will be short-lived.

“While five-year funding for the backlog project has allowed the grave marker maintenance team to reduce the backlog of repairs significantly, maintaining an adequate inspection cycle post-project will be challenging,” the audit report reads.

“The evaluation finds that the current $1.25 million allocated to the cemetery and grave marker maintenance program is insufficient to prevent a future maintenance backlog.”

The audit report goes on to note that the annual $1.25 million budget has remained largely unchanged since 2009, even though the number of graves tracked and maintained by the department has increased by more than 40 per cent over the past decade.

Veterans Affairs spokesman Marc Lescoutre confirmed in an email to The Canadian Press that the department has not increased baseline funding for the maintenance program, though he said it has taken $900,000 from other areas to ensure sufficient funds.