Madam Speaker, I was quite pleased that the government at the time responded as quickly as it did and that it did set up a matching funds program, whereby funds donated by Canadians were matched by the government. I was only disappointed it did not give the same consideration for the Chilean earthquake, which happened on February 27, just shortly thereafter. Nevertheless it did the right thing.
I would like to know, to date, what is the quantity of the funds that have been collected and matched by the government, and what is the status of where the funds are at right now? I have read a couple of articles that indicate that this is somewhat in transition. There are people now who are wanting their tax receipts and will be expecting them fairly soon because they will be filing their income tax in another 30 days from now in some cases and they will want these receipts.
Could the member update me as to where things are at with the matching funds program?