Mr. Chair, my colleague's question gets to the essence of the problem of the day, which was that the government of the day under Allan Rock refused to acknowledge its responsibilities for ensuring compensation for all victims who were affected by tainted blood through no fault of their own.
Rather than take responsibility for the fact that our health care system allowed this to happen, even when tests were available to identify the problem, the minister still refused to do the right thing. As a consolation prize, the government offered two things: a care not cash package and a fund to be allocated to certain groups and organizations to provide support to the victims of hepatitis C.
In the case of the care not cash package, many of the infected victims did not end up receiving the benefits from that program. To this day many in Canada have yet to receive a benefit commensurate with the kind of illness they are facing, the kind of medications required and the medical interventions that must happen. I would agree with my colleague that that was an ill-conceived scheme that did not even console those who were deeply affected by this tragedy.
The second program of providing supports for organizations to give self-help to the community also was of such a feeble amount that it hardly helped grassroots organizations anywhere across the country.
I just got off the phone with Susan Wish who is with the Hepatitis C Resource Centre in Manitoba. The centre has been struggling to provide a service to those in desperate need through volunteer labour and through constant efforts to raise money through donations. It has not been able to benefit from those federal dollars at any time over the last seven years.
The consolation prize that Allan Rock offered at the time was a feeble attempt to replace responsible action on the part of the government, and to this day we are paying for it.
Today we must focus on the need for the government to finally accept responsibility for compensating all the victims. With that comes the obligation to provide the necessary resources to access the health care system. In many cases it is alternative medicine that is not covered under our medicare system. We also must ensure that community based self-help groups that are there to ensure that people who have hepatitis C, which has destroying qualities in terms of a quality of life, have the help, the counselling and the supports they need to make it through an otherwise very difficult time in their lives.