The Canadian military will "do what has to be done" to pay for the funerals of all soldiers killed on duty, the defence minister said on Wednesday.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier told an Ottawa news conference the department will cover more expenses linked with military funerals.

Gen. Rick Hillier spoke at an Ottawa news conference on Wednesday.
(CBC)

"Our support is unconditional," Hillier said. "Whatever the challenge — be it financial or any other challenge — we will do what has to be done."

O'Connor said his department is currently reviewing whether the families of the 55 soldiers killed in the past five years in Afghanistan were shortchanged on funeral expenses, as has been reported in the media and publicly alleged by the family of one soldier at a Wednesday news conference.

The defence minister said he can't confirm the news reports, but that "corrective action" will be taken if they are true.

O'Connor said he had directed the department late last year to review the funeral expenses it had paid to families.

"If [the news reports are] confirmed, this would indicate that my direction was not followed and I can assure you that this will be dealt with accordingly and corrected as soon as possible."

Under current regulations, the military pays about $4,700 for a funeral, excluding the plot and headstone.

O'Connor said his department recently estimated the average cost of a funeral is about $7,500 and that cabinet would raise the military burial stipend.

"The new guidelines, which have yet to be approved by the cabinet process, will have a lot more flexibility," said O'Connor.

All serving military personnel are entitled to funerals at the public's expense, with some restrictions and exceptions. However, the limit imposed on funeral expenses for both regular and reserve members of the Forces has not increased for a number of years.

O'Connor on Monday assured the House the full cost of each military funeral has been covered since he became minister in early 2006. On Tuesday, he backed away from that statement, saying he had instructed his department to start reviewing all the cases.

Liberal MPs repeatedly called on O'Connor to resign during question period Wednesday. The defence minister repeated his assurances that his department would make sure families were appropriately compensated.

Parents call for compensation

The hastily called news conference took place about an hour before the parents of a slain Canadian soldier publicly said they hadn't been fully compensated for the funeral of their son, Cpl. Matthew Dinning, who was killed in Afghanistan last year.

"We have not been fully reimbursed for Matthew's funeral despite that Mr. O'Connor stood up in House of Commons and told the Canadian people the exact opposite," said Lincoln Dinning. "We hope they acknowledge there is a problem and they fix it."

Lincoln Dinning said he and his wife Laurie wrote two letters in 2006 requesting further compensation for funeral expenses. They went through the proper Canadian Forces chain of command, sending the letters to military family liason officers assigned to them, said Dinning, who added they have had three different liason officers since their son died.

The bill from the funeral home was $12,151, said Dinning, who said the military has offered $5,600 in compensation.

The Dinnings want the military to pay the roughly $3,000 to set up the arena used to hold their son's funeral service, because there were no churches in their hometown of Wingham that were large enough to accomodate the 2,300 people who attended the service.

They also want compensation for their son's cemetary plot, keepsake urn, Laurie Dinning's grief counselling sessions and the cost of an Ottawa hotel room the family stayed at while attending a military police memorial honouring Matthew Dinning.

The Dinnings also wrote Prime Minister Stephen Harper to criticize a Veterans Affairs policy that pays a $250,000 death benefit to the spouse or common-law partner of a soldier, but pays no death benefit when a single soldier dies.

The Dinnings said they were pleased to hear that O'Connor and Hillier planned to raise the funeral compensation levels, but are frustrated they had to go public.

"It's very frustrating as parents that we should have to come and let the public into our private lives because it's a very private process, this whole grieving," said Laurie Dinning.

"We're not here to make this a political agenda. We both feel that we shouldn't have to be here."

Harper refused to discuss the complaint during question period Wednesday, saying it would be resolved in private talks between the Dinnings and federal officials.

With files from the Canadian Press