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Some of the biggest job cuts at Veterans Affairs in recent years have been in the disability awards branch — the division targeted in a recent auditor general’s report for taking too long to decide on the benefit claims of ex-soldiers.

Departmental performance reports stretching back to 2009 show that roughly 897 positions have been eliminated across Veterans Affairs, with 33% coming out of the section that administers pensions and awards.

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Those same records show the health and rehabilitation branches also took a sizable hit — roughly 372 positions during the same time frame.

Commemorations, the division that celebrates past wars and maintains memorials, was reduced by 17.2%, while internal services — Prime Minister Stephen Harper described it last week as “backroom administration” — lost 71 positions, just 10.1%.

We make no apologies for reducing bureaucratic expenses at Veterans Affairs Canada

“We have taken resources out of backroom administration from bureaucracy. We have put it into services,” Mr. Harper said Wednesday during question period.