Canada's defence and veteran affairs ministers announced this week new veteran identification cards will be issued.
The Royal Canadian Legion supports the idea, but is still pushing for further changes to veteran services.
Troy Bailey is a retired warrant officer with the Canadian Armed Forces.
He served for 25 years.
"As a retired member of the Canadian Forces, it gives you a sense of identity back, and that the Canadian Armed Forces didn't just let you go. You still have that connection back to the Canadian Armed Forces, where you can identify yourself to places that you were in the services, and that if you need to get needs from Veterans Affairs or any places like that, you can prove your identification and services." said Bailey.
The Royal Canadian Legion says the new ID card is a good first step, but they want to see cards issued for family members as well.
"When you serve in the military, your family serves with you. Whether it’s your spouse, whether it's your children, or not, or you're a blended family from another thing. They go through the same things you go through, but in a different spectrum. Military family and military is the same. So they're able to get some of the benefits that they need help with down the road. They can identify, yes my dad, my mother, my spouse, they were in the military and this is why they want to get access to Veterans Affairs for some sort of things like that." said Bailey.
Numerous companies in Canada offer discounts to military members, but for the past couple of years, not every member received proper ID.
The new card will now prevent fraud and will make it easy for people to identify themselves when asked.
