Debates of April 29th, 1998

Hepatitis C

[Preston Manning, Reform, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister misses the point as usual.

Let us consider the situation of the MP for St. Paul's. She was a founding member of the hepatitis C society. She says she wants compensation for the victims. As a physician she swore an oath to make caring for the sick her number one priority, but she was forced to abandon her conscience, her friends and everything she believed in because of a political decree from the Prime Minister.

My question is for the Prime Minister. Why should some oath of political allegiance to the Prime Minister take precedence over that member's oath to care for the sick?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, because I know the member of parliament, who is extremely competent in the field, I know that she does not want to play politics with the health of people.

She understood very well that in voting with a responsible government she was showing to the others that they were just playing politics and being hypocrites with the health of the people of Canada.

[Preston Manning, Reform, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, did the Prime Minister think the victims were playing politics yesterday? Apparently the Prime Minister achieved what he wanted to achieve. He proved that Liberal backbenchers can be browbeaten into violating every principle they believe.

The MP for Gatineau actually said he now wishes he never got involved in politics in the first place. The Prime Minister must be—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

I am sure we all want to hear both the questions and the answers. I go back to the hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Preston Manning, Reform, Calgary Southwest, AB]

Mr. Speaker, since the Prime Minister has now lost all moral authority on this issue, is there anyone in the government who will take up the cause of the thousands of hepatitis C victims the government abandoned last night?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, an agreement was made with all the provincial governments of Canada. I just want to quote to the House of Commons the spokesman of the ministers of health said, Clay Serby, the NDP minister of health from Saskatchewan:

But this, in my opinion, is not a political issue. This has never been a political issue and we should not be making it into a political issue.

This isn't Saskatchewan's opinion only. This is a collective wisdom of all of the provincial ministers across the country, whether the provincial governments are Liberal, Conservative or NDP.

There was no—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Macleod.

[Grant Hill, Reform, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it was instructive last night what the health minister did after the vote. He did not go out and say he was sorry to the victims. He did not even face them. He snuck out the side door. Then he said “This file is closed”. That is how he treats and thinks of those victims and the suffering of those victims: just another legal file that he can close.

My question is for the Prime Minister. Why did he order this heartless lawyer to treat these victims just like a legal file that he could shove away?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that the Minister of Health was the first one to raise the issue in Canada and force the provincial governments to move on the matter.

All the ministers of health are facing the same problem. They are facing it responsibly because they look at the real issue. The minister of health from Manitoba said that if we are to get beyond the principle of compensating—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Macleod.

[Grant Hill, Reform, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the health minister was the first one to raise it all right. He raised the expectations of those victims when he said that they would not have to go to court, and now he is forcing them to go to court.

My question is for the Prime Minister. Why has he let his heartless minister go on this way and treat these victims in a heartless, cruel manner? Why?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the health minister, for the people where there was government responsibility, was the one who moved first to offer them compensation so that they would not have to go to court to be compensated.

Professional Sport

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Prime Minister forced government members to vote against compensating all hepatitis C victims.

In the meantime, Liberal members were lobbying for government funding of professional sport.

How can the Prime Minister justify his government's priorities when, on the one hand, he is forcing all government members to vote against compensating hepatitis C victims and, on the other, he is allowing certain members to lobby on behalf of sports magnates?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as Lucien Bouchard pointed out yesterday in the National Assembly, members of the House voted in favour of compensating all victims of this illness for the period during which the government was responsible, as recommended.

Are we going to go beyond fault so that, even in the absence of fault, governments will have to compensate for damages? If the answer is yes, people need to know that this might diminish the quality and scope of services. There are therefore very serious consequences.

That is what a responsible government does.

[The Speaker]

The hon. leader of the Bloc Quebecois.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister should take note of what was said yesterday in the National Assembly.

Yesterday, a number of witnesses before the heritage subcommittee referred to the situation in the United States, where sports teams are heavily funded. While that is true, it is also true that the United States is not interested in having a universal health system. That is something the sports magnates did not talk about.

Rather than concluding a tax agreement with sports magnates, should the Prime Minister not return the money he took from the provinces for health care? That is a political choice. That is a socially responsible choice.

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, on several occasions I have explained to the House that what this government is doing is ensuring that Canada's fiscal house is in order. When one looks at what actually happened, the Province of Quebec was cut less than the government of that province cut its municipalities.

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is also for the Prime Minister.

Yesterday, the government flatly rejected the plea made by hepatitis C victims. On the other hand, it is receptive to the representations of sports millionaires.

Are we to understand that the government is about to invest in professional sports, and will do so with the $6 billion that it takes each year from the employment insurance fund, while 60% of the unemployed can no longer have access to employment insurance benefits?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

No, Mr. Speaker.

[Suzanne Tremblay, Bloc, Rimouski—Mitis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government eliminated its deficit largely by cutting transfers to provinces for health, education and social assistance.

Now that it has managed to get some flexibility in this fashion, does it intend to invest in sports millionaires, instead of restoring funding for education, social assistance and health?

[Sheila Copps, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

No, Mr. Speaker.

Hepatitis C

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

Liberal backbenchers are spinning hope today among hepatitis C victims by suggesting that additional proposals are in the works for those excluded from the current compensation package.

Will the Prime Minister tell Canadians what specific measures he is prepared to implement for the excluded hepatitis C victims? Is this government policy or just Liberal backbencher damage control?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I note in passing that in the legislature of Saskatchewan the members of the NDP Government of Saskatchewan voted down a motion to extend compensation to all victims. The NDP government refused to permit a free vote in that exercise.

The NDP Government of Saskatchewan and that legislature have reaffirmed the agreement reached by all ministers of health to provide cash payments to those who were infected as a result of the fault of those responsible for the system.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, unlike the Liberal Party, New Democrats have the honesty and the guts to disagree when the situation warrants it.

The health minister insists that the hepatitis C file is closed. It is not closed for the tens of thousands of hepatitis C victims and it will not be until they are fairly compensated. It is not closed for most members of parliament, not even for the government's own backbenchers. Hepatitis C victims do not want false hope.

My question is for the Minister of Health. Is there money to deliver the promises being pedalled by Liberal backbenchers—