Mr. Speaker, the chronology of the tragic events which led to the hepatitis C infections through contaminated blood is now very clear. It is a sad history.
One feature of that history which I have been stressing, which was very influential on governments, was that during the four-year period from 1986 to 1990 many of those infections could have been prevented had those responsible for the system acted as they should have.
The federal government is contributing $800 million and the provinces are contributing $300 million to a fund totalling over a billion dollars to assist and to aid those who were infected in that period.
We believe this is good public policy. We believe it is the responsible way—