Supply  In that case, it is the individual to whom I have just referred and to whom I cannot directly address the question. If he were infected with hepatitis C before 1986 would he accept being excluded from that compensation package? The Liberals drone on about the should have, could have and would have.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my hon. colleague from Winnipeg—Transcona and I would like to ask him a question. I wonder if the hon. member would venture to speculate about which way the people of Canada would have more confidence in the government: if the government insisted that it not pay, or if the government said it did make a mistake, there was some negligence and that it had the moral responsibility to expand the package.

Supply  I appeal to the intelligence of all members of this government and urge them to vote in favour of the Reform motion.

Supply  We in NDP support and have supported all along the notion that the people who contracted hepatitis C as a result of tainted blood should be compensated no matter when they were contaminated. We support the Reform Party motion on this and we urge the government backbenchers to. Perhaps it would help if all the House leaders of the opposition parties got together. We are going to be saying this individually throughout the day.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise this morning in support of the Reform motion, which states “That this House urges the government to act on the recommendation of Justice Horace Krever to compensate all victims who contracted hepatitis C from tainted blood.”

Supply  Mr. Speaker, the motion today is pretty specific, to decide whether members of Parliament agree with compensating all the victims of hepatitis C as Justice Krever suggested. I listened carefully to the member's commentary and I have not heard much on the actual motion. I would like to ask him a direct question.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, leave it to the NDP to bring something like that up when we are talking about hepatitis C. The issue of health care is another issue that we have gladly debated in this House from time to time. What the NDP should do today is focus on a very important issue that is over there, not over here.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I will answer his second question first. It is ironic that all opposition parties raise this issue. We raised it yesterday and for months and months now. Yesterday we gave the government notice in the House that there would be a very special debate on the hepatitis C issue.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I make no attempt whatever to say there is only one Liberal in the House. The issue concerns everybody in opposition. This is not something where the government can sweep it under the table and hope it goes away. It will just not go away. It has to learn that absence does not make the parliamentary heart grow fonder.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, the member who just spoke talked about how this would force many hepatitis C victims to go to court and how the government would use money defending itself. Would he comment on the fact that the government is using taxpayers' money to defend itself against taxpayers and the position that puts taxpayers in when going to court to defend themselves against the government and supplying the money to their opponents so they can fight them?

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I stand on behalf of the New Democratic Party and thank the Reform Party for its motion today. I also wish to thank publicly all hepatitis C victims and AIDS victims in Nova Scotia. However I have a slight concern. I will be corrected if I am mistaken, but we certainly do not like the idea of a two tier compensation system for hep C victims.

Supply  Mr Speaker, the member is quite an expert in the rules and I claim not to be such an expert. Let me read from the rules. On December 20, 1984 the House removed references in the standing orders which described votable motions on allotted days, that is today, as questions of confidence.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, moral persuasion is sometimes a powerful persuasion. The persuasion I see as the most effective is the persuasion of the victims. We have a few days now between this debate and when the vote will take place. I simply ask the victims who have suffered to go to their MPs.

Questions On The Order Paper  Can the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration please provide: ( a ) the rationale and justification for the right-of-landing-fee (ROLF) as it applies to the sponsorship of family members; ( b ) the total revenue collected as a consequence of this aspect of this fee since its inception; ( c ) the location of this revenue item within the public accounts for this department; ( d ) the amount spent from this collected revenue on Language Instruction for Newcomers (LINC) and an item breakdown on the use of this funds; ( e ) an outline of the accounting process in place to ensure proper use and distribution of this fund for LINC; and ( f ) any studies or documentation that may identify the LINC program is not duplicating English as a Second Language (ESL) program?

Supply  moved: That this House urges the government to act on the recommendation of Justice Horace Krever to compensate all victims who contracted Hepatitis C from tainted blood.