Madam Speaker, I am following up on a question I had for the health minister on March 17 in regard to the compensation package for hepatitis C victims.
It is no secret that all of us on this side of the House are very disappointed with this package. To begin with, it only covers the victims between the years 1986 and 1990. Victims prior to 1986 are not included in the package. Victims after 1990 are not included.
To add insult to injury, aside from leaving out those innocent victims prior to 1986 and after 1990, not one victim has received a nickel of compensation from the federal government. Not one single person.
Adding insult to injury once again, the only people who have been paid by the federal government are the lawyers who are handling this case. The legal nightmare that we envisioned has evolved in the way we said it would. Only the lawyers have been paid. There is something wrong with a package that only pays the lawyers.
I asked the minister to take some leadership on this issue and do something. For example, do what the province of Ontario and the province of Quebec have done, which is to introduce a no fault compensation scheme.
To conclude, I want to quote from Justice Krever's report. He recommended without delay that the government, the provinces and territories devise statutory no fault schemes for compensating persons who suffer serious adverse consequences as a result of the administration of blood components and blood products.
The federal government has simply not done that. We are asking it to get on with the business of compensating those innocent victims. We want action.