Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health.
On January 28, the current government informed the Canadian Hemophilia Society that it would pay for only 75 hours of advice by legal counsel before the beginning of the hearings on the issue of tainted blood. On February 3, the minister stated: "As you know, we are very concerned by this issue, but the system which was set up, namely the appointment of a judge and the allocation of funds, had been decided by the previous government".
How can the minister explain the answer she gave last week, knowing full well that she herself had authorized, on January 28, the subsidy about which the Canadian Hemophilia Society is complaining?