Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is quite right. The minister has received a lot of compliments from colleagues on all sides of the House on his open-mindedness to this very important question that the health committee has brought before us.
The report from the committee urges the government to extend the compensation outside of the window. Under the agreement, which the member talked about and which I know he is familiar with, my understanding is that with regard to the disposition of any surplus the agreement presently provides for four potential uses: reinvesting the money; returning it to contributors, including the Government of Canada; increasing payments to existing beneficiaries; or spending the money on activities that would benefit the beneficiaries, for example, research.
The agreement in fact is not silent on the disposition of surplus, but extending the window does not seem to be one of these items, although I think through the utilization of one of the other ones we may be able to still do that. I know the minister will have to consider that.
Does the hon. member know whether the health committee considered the current provisions of the hep C agreement, whether it had any position or concern about the fact that the determination of surplus was not scheduled until 2005 and whether there was any mechanism by which a determination of surplus could be accelerated?