By Kris Sims
OTTAWA - A Star of Courage Veteran is asking the Trudeau government for fair treatment of PTSD Service Dogs.
"My dog is my lifeline, without her I am not here. She saved my life," Captain (ret'd) Medric Cousineau told CFRA's Evan Solomon on Ottawa Now. "The impact that these dogs have on our lives: this is not your fuzzy pet that makes you feel good when you come home from work, this is a dog that at 4:30 in the morning wakes me up from my night terrors."
Cousineau was awarded the Star of Courage for his bravery in a treacherous high seas rescue while he served aboard Sea King Helicopters on Canada's east coast in 1986. He repeatedly risked his own life to save two seriously injured crewmen from an American fishing boat that was pitching wildly in a vicious nighttime storm. The event left him with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which caused repeated attempts on his own life. It was only after being paired with his PTSD Service Dog, a female yellow Lab named Thai, that he was able to function again.
Cousineau now runs the organization ‘Paws Fur Thought’ in Nova Scotia where he matches dogs with Veterans who need them.
Cousineau told Solomon that while Canadians with epilepsy, autism and diabetes get medical tax deductions for their Service Animals, Veterans who need Service Dogs for PTSD do not get the same treatment.
Cousineau wants the tax code changed so that Service Dogs for PTSD - almost exclusively used by Veterans and First Responders - are given equal treatment and he's asking Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr for swift action.
"What I want the government to do now is to stop discriminating," Cousineau said. He told CFRA that despite initially being a key consultant in the development of national standards for PTSD Service Dogs, he now waits months to get replies from Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr's office.
Minister Hehr's office sent an emailed response to CFRA stating that Cousineau and his fellow Veterans will have to wait more than a year for any possible changes to the tax code.
"We have heard from members of the Veterans community that this is an important issue for them. This is why we launched a pilot study last year through the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research. This research will evaluate whether the use of psychiatric service dogs is a safe and effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder," Minister Hehr's spokesperson wrote in an email. "These projects are expected to be complete by December 2017 - at this time, we will review the findings and determine next steps. This will include pursuing this issue with the Minister of Finance and formally submitting the tax credit to Finance for consideration, and having the evidence from these two projects in hand would help the tax credit be considered more favourably."
The opposition Conservatives say an immediate change to the Tax Code would be a simple "line change" and could be accomplished through a Minister to Minister conversation between Hehr and Bill Morneau.
"While I understand amending the tax code is not within your purview as Minister, I feel it would be extremely helpful if you would encourage your colleague the Minister of Finance to correct this situation by allowing this credit," John Brassard, opposition critic for Veterans Affairs wrote in a letter addressed to Minister Hehr dated December 7th. "There is a clear inequity in regards to this tax credit. Veterans and their family members who rely on service animals due to autism, epilepsy or vision problems are granted the credit while PTSD sufferers are not."
When Cousineau learned of the year-long wait for any possible changes to the tax code he wrote on Facebook late Wednesday night that he felt "betrayed."
"The release provided to the media today (the statement emailed to CFRA) demonstrates they do not understand the issue. The Minister of Veterans Affairs should be defending us, and he chooses to perpetuate it. Now his silence is complicity and betrayal. I have offered to meet and discuss this issue but I have not had the courtesy of a single conversation with the ministers staff," he wrote.
Kris Sims is former staff to then Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O'Toole