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Despite a federal government push to hire former soldiers who were released due to medical issues, Veterans Affairs Canada has only hired 25 of them in the past 10 years.

According to statistics from the Public Service Commission, Veterans Affairs only hired 25 former soldiers who had been medically released in the past decade, and just one in the last two years, as the government was emphasizing the need for such hirings.

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Over this 10-year period, the Department of National Defence has hired 838, or almost 71 per cent, of the total of 1,184 injured soldiers now working in the public service, according to the statistics.

Correctional Service Canada is the second-largest employer with 63 such employees, followed by Employment and Social Development Canada with 52. Public Works has hired 28, Fisheries and Oceans 27 and the RCMP 25.

The Conservative government announced in November 2013 that they were pushing for priority hiring in the public service of soldiers who had been medically released from the military. Since they began that initiative, 130 such individuals were hired across the federal government.