Service Dogs Added to Veterans Rehab
An Act to amend the Veterans Well-being Act
Summary
- Amends the Veterans Well-being Act to explicitly include the provision of service dogs as part of rehabilitation services for eligible veterans.
- Requires the Minister, during each veteran’s rehabilitation planning, to assess whether a service dog is medically or psycho-socially warranted.
- Authorizes regulations, after consulting provinces, on dog health standards, breeding, identification accessories, training and testing of dogs and teams, certification of organizations and examiners, and program financing.
- Defines a service dog as one individually trained by a specialized organization to assist with physical, psychological, or social adjustment needs.
Builder Assessment
This bill is a focused improvement to veterans’ rehabilitation that can enhance outcomes and, if executed well, deliver better value in public services. While it introduces a new regulatory framework, clear standards and reciprocity can minimize red tape and prioritize timely, safe access for veterans.
- Advances a practical, safety-conscious therapy that can reduce reliance on more expensive or less effective interventions.
- Potential for improved government efficiency through standardized quality control and outcome tracking.
- Risk of added bureaucracy is real; mitigate with interprovincial reciprocity, streamlined certification, and outcome-based regulations.
- Set clear service standards and transparent reporting to ensure timely access and accountability.
- Recognize existing, properly trained veteran-owned dogs to avoid unnecessary retraining costs and delays.
- Use recognized accreditation benchmarks and public-safety requirements to protect veterans and communities while keeping compliance simple.
Question Period Cards
What is the projected annual program cost and cost per veteran for providing and maintaining certified service dogs, and will the government publish outcome metrics comparing this intervention to other treatments?
How will the Minister ensure reciprocal recognition of service-dog certifications across provinces to prevent duplication, delays, and added costs for veterans who relocate?
What concrete service standards will be set for eligibility decisions, training, and placement timelines to guarantee veterans receive an appropriate service dog without bureaucratic bottlenecks?
Principles Analysis
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Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.
Improves veterans’ well-being and may aid workforce reintegration, but the macroeconomic impact is limited in scale.
✗
Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).
Creates new regulatory and certification frameworks that could add compliance burdens for training organizations and administrative steps for veterans.
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Drive national productivity and global competitiveness, including removing interprovincial trade barriers and improving labour mobility (one country, one market).
Potentially helps some veterans return to work or function better, but effects on national productivity are modest and indirect.
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Grow exports of Canadian products and resources, and move up the value chain by processing resources domestically rather than exporting them raw.
No material link to exports or trade.
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Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.
May spur activity in the service-dog training sector and innovative rehab approaches, but scope is narrow and not resource-focused.
✓
Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).
Integrates a potentially cost-effective, evidence-informed therapy into VAC’s toolkit and enables standardized quality control that can improve outcomes and avoid costlier interventions if implemented efficiently.
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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.
No tax measures are included.
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Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.
A targeted veterans’ services change; impact is important but not economy-wide.
Did we get the builder vote wrong?
Email [email protected]
PartyMember of Parliament
StatusOutside the Order of Precedence
Last updatedN/A
TopicsHealthcare, Social Welfare
Parliament45