Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
As a responsible citizen, I certainly had a lot to think about when I heard that the astronomical sum of $53.6 million had been spent to produce the documents that I had requested from Health Canada. These documents on which officials had based their decision regarding breast implants totalled 65,000 pages. I told myself that it was absolutely essential for us to get an estimate of the cost, because in my opinion, these numbers are very high.
Meanwhile, as I mentioned last week to the Minister of Health, I contacted several companies to ask them what it would cost to have the documents translated. The highest quote I received was $6.5 million. Furthermore, that was discounting the fact that with such a voluminous document, I probably would have received a substantial break on the price because this was not an ordinary translation request. Therefore, when I discovered that the document could have been translated for this amount, I felt sure that the breakdown contained other costs.
I'd like to get an exact cost breakdown. You can't fool the members of the Bloc Québécois. We are responsible individuals and we want to know what the figures are in order to make a decision, further to the government's presentation.