OTTAWA -- Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay says the ongoing backlog of processing veterans’ applications for disability benefits will be “under control” but likely not completely eradicated by 2022.

“I can’t say we’re going to totally eliminate the backlog, but our goal is to put it where it should be,” MacAulay said in an interview on CTV’s Power Play, stating that the outstanding cases by then will likely be more complex files. “We expect by 2022 to have the backlog under control.”

As CTV News reported earlier this week, thousands of Canadian veterans have been left waiting for disability benefits because of a growing delay in processing applications, leading to increased frustration and stress among those who served this country.

MacAulay said there are “a number of problems,” including an increase in new applications but “that’s no excuse.”

“It’s the responsibility of the government to make sure these applications are handled, and handled properly,” he said.

According to Veterans Affairs Canada, nearly 19,000 applications for disability benefits sit in a backlog, which is actually an improvement from the roughly 21,000-claim backlog as of June, but the department admits only 37 per cent of claims are addressed within its own 16-week standard time frame.

These delays can lead to real-world problems for veterans, including experiences where acute issues become chronic while waiting for federal support. It’s led some veterans to call for MacAulay to resign.

“This backlog is the biggest issue we’ve got to deal with, it’s the number one priority for myself,” he said during Wednesday’s interview. “We owe it to them, and we will do it.”

In a separate panel discussion on CTV’s Power Play, VETS Canada’s Debbie Lowther and Wounded Warriors Scott Maxwell said it’s frustrating that for years, despite promises from a rotation of past veterans affairs ministers from both Conservative and Liberal governments, that officials still struggle to deliver these and other services to Canadians who served their country.

“It’s great to hear any minister of veterans affairs say, ‘We’re going to fix it,’ because we need to fix it, but the reality is every year we go back… we’ve said these things over and over again,” said Maxwell. “We’ve had nine ministers of veterans affairs in Canada in the last 10 years.”

Lowther said that she sees often veterans requiring other organizations’ assistance after not getting the help they expected from the government when they need it, and when cases drag on some withdraw their claims, while others are traumatized when asked for more information about their mental and physical health situations.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux has cautioned that getting through the backlog without additional funding will take at least five years.

MacAulay has previously called the backlog “unacceptable” and pointed to the department’s recent investment of $200 million, which is being used to hire nearly 500 new staff members to process claims.

The department is also implementing new protocols meant to speed up the process, including digitizing files and creating benefit teams to promote information sharing, especially in the early stages of the application process.

With files from CTV News’ Annie Bergeron-Oliver and Ben Cousins