Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister, and the staff who are here with you, for spending this much time answering questions. It's important for all of us. I realize it's a fair chunk out of your day, so we appreciate that.
I'd like to continue on with the question asked by my colleague just previous, with regard to people with hepatitis C outside the window. It's not as if we have not done this before. We know what negotiations look like, because we did that for people who were inside the window. It's not a brand new process for the lawyers to know how to do this.
I understand in some ways your saying the lawyers are working on it, but when you are someone with hepatitis C who has, I don't know, a week or a month to live, and you're losing your home, and you've lost your job....
If you were to look over your left shoulder, Mr. Minister, you would see, in the whole front row, people who have come--because they knew you would be here--from across this province, spending what is for them very precious energy that they may not get back, to hear from you an answer on when they will be able to have compensation.
I know you said it's a top priority, and I don't doubt the sincerity of that, but you said it during the election, and that was five months ago. On May 2 I think you said to me, in the House, the words “with alacrity”. I assume that means--the last time I checked--as quickly as possible, or speedily. I don't know if it's alacrity that we're seeing here.
The other thing is that we have people here who truly, as I say, are not taking their medicine. They cannot afford it. They are losing their homes, and they're losing family members and friends. They need to know, if you're saying you can't tell us a date, that there will be a commitment. I would ask you today if you could provide a date for an agreement to an interim payment, for people to at least be able to afford to feed their children, to be able to have their medication, to be able to at least have a certain amount in their lives, based on an interim payment.
This is my question to you today: are you able to give those people, sitting in the front row, watching you with hope--and they came here with hope--a date for when they would receive an interim payment?
I would also ask about survivor benefits. I don't know if survivor benefits have been spoken of. I have not heard them spoken of in this particular negotiation. Many of these people here have husbands, wives, children that they are responsible for. If an agreement is not reached with survivor benefits included, then not only will they have lost what they have, but their families also will be left in destitute positions.
So I would ask if you could answer those questions: Will survivor benefits be included, and can you provide today a date for when people would be receiving an interim payment, if you cannot announce today a date for when an agreement will be reached?
As I said, I think people have done this before, the lawyers have experience, and I would think it's like inventing it again. It seems to me they could move faster, and I would be expecting, if I were minister, that they would.
If you could answer those questions, I'd appreciate it.
