Inside the Veterans Review and Appeal Board’s 2025-26 Plan
What’s next for veterans’ disability appeals and how the Board plans to serve them better.
Today, we’re diving into the 2025-26 Departmental Plan from the Veterans Review and Appeal Board (VRAB), straight from the official document. This plan outlines how the Board intends to support veterans, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) members, and their families by improving the disability benefits appeal process. Here’s a clear and simple summary of what’s ahead.
What Does the Veterans Review and Appeal Board Do?
The VRAB offers an independent review and appeal program for disability benefits decisions made by Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC). Their goal is to ensure that veterans, CAF and RCMP members, and their families get the benefits they’re entitled to for service-related disabilities.
“The Board looks forward to continuing to serve our country's Veterans, CAF and RCMP members, and their families, in order to provide them the benefits to which they are entitled.” – Christopher J. McNeil, Chair, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
Key Priorities for 2025-26
The Board has outlined four main focuses for the year:
Efficient Appeal Process: Making the process smoother and faster.
Timely Decisions: Delivering decisions more quickly to veterans.
Innovation: Using new tools and ideas to improve services.
Inclusion: Ensuring services and the workplace are welcoming to everyone.
Timely Decisions: Speeding Up the Process
A big goal for the Board is to reduce wait times for decisions. They’ve set clear targets:
77% of review decisions issued within 16 weeks by 2026 (up from 73% in 2023-24).
37% of appeal decisions issued within 16 weeks by 2026 (up from 35% in 2023-24).
“In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of cases coming to the Board. To manage the growing workload, the Board secured both permanent and temporary funding through Budget 2023.”
To handle the backlog, the Board added 11 new temporary members in January 2025. They’re also using data tools like dashboards to manage workloads and are testing ways to digitize paper documents to speed things up.
High-Quality Hearings and Decisions
The Board wants to ensure hearings and decisions are fair and well-handled. Their plans include:
Training: Providing members and staff with training on topics like legislation, hearing management, and administrative law.
Outreach: Expanding a public awareness campaign started in 2024-25 to help veterans understand their appeal rights and the process.
Listening to Veterans: The Chair will keep meeting with veteran groups across Canada to hear their needs directly.
“By meeting with various Veteran groups across the country, we gain valuable insights into the challenges and needs of Veterans and their families, which directly informs and guides improvements in the appeal process.” – Christopher J. McNeil, Chair, Veterans Review and Appeal Board
Innovation and Technology
The Board is bringing in new tools to make their work more efficient:
Digital Improvements: Using Veterans Affairs Canada’s Service Health Record Search Tool to quickly find relevant health records.
Automation: Exploring ways to automate hearing scheduling.
Website Updates: Modernizing their website to be more user-friendly and accessible.
They’ve also created an Innovation Team to look into how artificial intelligence could help streamline processes.
Building a Strong Team
The Board knows its staff and members are essential to success. They’re planning to:
Develop Skills: Offer training and new opportunities for employees to grow.
Promote Diversity: Roll out the “Unity in Diversity” 2024-2028 Action Plan to make the workplace more inclusive.
Improve Accessibility: Continue their 2022-25 Accessibility Action Plan and start a new one for 2025-28.
“The Board sets a high standard for promoting an organizational culture that is based on the values of respect, diversity and inclusion.”
Managing Challenges
The Board is tackling two main risks:
Meeting Demand: They’re worried about keeping up with the need for timely decisions. To help, they’re improving scheduling and streamlining processes.
Staffing Needs: They’re creating a human resources plan to ensure they have the right people with the right skills.
Understanding Diverse Needs
The Board uses Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) to make sure their services work for all veterans, considering factors like gender, age, and ability. All new staff must take GBA Plus training to support this effort.
Supporting Global Goals
The Board’s work ties into two United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:
SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being): Helping veterans access benefits to support their health.
SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions): Offering a fair appeal process for all.
Resources and Partnerships
The Board works with Veterans Affairs Canada through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to handle internal services like IT and HR at no cost. They also plan to award at least 5% of their contract value to Indigenous businesses, supporting economic inclusion.
For 2025-26, their budget is $23,073,258, and they’ll have 203 full-time staff—an increase to help clear the backlog.
“The addition of these Members will greatly increase our capacity to conduct hearings in 2025-26, bringing the Board closer to eliminating the backlog and delivering timely decisions to Veterans and their families.”
Who’s Behind the Plan?
Minister: The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, P.C., M.P.
Chair: Christopher J. McNeil
Legislation: Veterans Review and Appeal Board Act
That’s the rundown of the VRAB’s 2025-26 Departmental Plan! It’s all about making the appeal process faster, fairer, and more accessible for veterans and their families. What do you think of these changes? How might they affect veterans in your community? Share your thoughts in the comments below! 🇨🇦