Mr. Chair, obviously the Conservative Party will cooperate fully to ensure that the victims of tainted blood are compensated as soon as possible. However I have to say that the Liberal government has been wrong and is wrong, and that the Conservative Party, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP were right on this issue.
I believe the minister is quite sincere in his belief that these victims should be compensated and that he is trying to navigate through what I am sure is not an easy process, but it is the Liberal government that got us here in the first place.
There needs to be some accountability. The minister represents the Liberal government and the government needs to be held accountable. The Liberals will not be off the hook until all the victims are compensated. Our role as opposition parties is to hold the government to account.
Having said that, our greater role as parliamentarians is to ensure that all the victims of hepatitis C are compensated as soon as possible. Quite frankly, if it had not been for the public pressure that the advocates of hepatitis C compensation placed on the government and the hard work of my predecessors in the health critic portfolio, such as the member for Yellowhead and Dr. Grant Hill, and the work of the Bloc Québécois and the NDP on this file, this would not have come to the stage that it is where we are on the cusp of compensation.