Veterans and their families are calling for easier access to records needed to support illness-related benefit claims, as a parliamentary report urges the federal government to disclose more information about environmental risks at military sites.

The House of Commons national defence committee report lists 2,750 Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces contaminated sites in Canada as of June 2026, CBC News reporter Amanda Pfeffer reported. Released in October, it makes 11 recommendations, including improving access to information for people making medical claims.

The committee also recommends proactively informing personnel and families who currently or previously lived or worked at military sites about environmental risks and assessment results.

For Maura-Jo Haytaoglu, finding evidence meant researching her husband’s military service while caring for him through an aggressive cancer. Hakan Haytaoglu, a Canadian Armed Forces pilot with a 35-year career, was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma at 55. Veterans Affairs Canada denied his initial claim.

He died in July 2025, weeks before his case went before the Veterans Review and Appeal Board in August. His wife ultimately won the appeal.

“It shouldn’t be this hard for those who served their country,” she told CBC.

Erin Zimmerman, whose testimony appears in the committee report, has helped more than two dozen veterans and their families locate evidence for claims appeals, including Haytaoglu’s. Zimmerman has been diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease and worked in sections of CFB Moose Jaw now designated an active contamination site. She said she had not been informed of the risks.

Jim Hutton of Veterans with Cancer Inc. told CBC that veterans struggle to obtain reliable information about historical toxic exposures. He said missing information can force them to file access-to-information requests and search multiple government databases to establish the risks they faced during service.

“Veterans should not have to become investigators,” Hutton said in an email to CBC.

Maura-Jo Haytaoglu said evidence gathered for her husband’s successful appeal is now helping surviving colleagues with their own claims.

CBC said Veterans Affairs Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces had not responded to its requests for comment by publication.

Sources