Cape Breton veterans say they have won both the battle and the war after the federal government announced new details about the reopening of the Veterans Affairs office in Sydney Wednesday morning.

A number of veterans were hand for the announcement, made by Veterans Affairs Minister Kent Hehr.

The new Veterans Affairs office will open in November 2016 in the former courthouse overlooking Sydney’s Wentworth Park.

The Sydney office one in Charlottetown are among nine offices that are reopening after being closed by the previous Conservative government in 2014.

Veterans say the reopening of the shuttered Veterans Affairs offices is vindication and proof that the thousands who protested the closures actually made a difference.

“The battle was when he closed the offices. That’s when the fight really started,” said veteran Ron Clarke. “But now that this new government is opening the offices, then that’s the war. The war is over. We won.”

“They didn’t take veterans’ issues seriously,” said Hehr. “You look at their record and it was one of closing offices, reducing staff, not treating veterans with care, compassion and respect. Our government has vowed to do better.”

Fifteen case workers will be hired full-time to staff the office, which officials say will be more spacious than the previous location on George Street. They also say it will be more open and accessible to what the government calls a younger, more modern veteran.

The federal government says all nine Veterans Affairs offices will be reopened by the spring of 2017.