Thank you.
I want to pick up on a question that was asked about thalidomide. We know that in budget 2018 the government agreed to accept this committee's recommendation to expand the eligibility criteria for the thalidomide survivors contribution program. Last May the Prime Minister was asked when the funding would flow to survivors, and he responded at that time:
We'll have more good news to share shortly on this issue.
Then last June the minister told this committee that an announcement would occur within “the next weeks and months”.
Now six months have passed, almost to the day, from that meeting, and these thalidomide survivors still have not seen any money. I heard the minister say, again, it would be in months. That's what I heard six months ago. Of course, these people are aging. There's a very limited, targeted group who took this drug. The mothers were pregnant in the early sixties.
Can you give us any idea when these forgotten thalidomide survivors will receive their funding or information?