Thank you.
I think we should also acknowledge the leadership of the Prime Minister on this file. It certainly would not have taken place without his leadership.
The response in the community affected by this has been uniformly positive and encouraging. They realize through their legal representatives that this is the deal they wanted. The problem with doing side deals or segmented deals is that the class is so diverse. Some people need tens of thousands of dollars' worth of help and others need a hundred dollars' worth of help. It would have taken a heck of a lot of time and effort to try to create a partial settlement, and we would never get to the future settlement. That was the worry.
Everyone agreed to work on the total settlement and get it approved as quickly as possible. That's the state of cooperation we've had from all the parties. I can tell you, without naming any names, that individual hepatitis C sufferers have e-mailed me, written to me, and telephoned to indicate that they know that this has been a complex process, made more complex by governmental inaction in the past. They are happy that justice is being done.
In some cases, it's not the money itself, although the money will help. It is the fact that there's a recognition that innocent victims are being compensated.