Mr. Speaker, over the past few days, the Canadian Hemophilia Society and numerous other organizations representing the interests of the victims of the hep C virus have been asking the federal government to follow up on the Krever recommendation and to compensate all those who got hepatitis C from contaminated blood transfusions, or from the administration of blood products, regardless of the date of infection.
Can the minister confirm that close to $1 billion remains unused in the compensation fund, and that it is outrageous that the government would refuse to extend eligibility to people who contracted the virus before January 1, 1986, or after July 1, 1990?