Mr. Speaker, my colleague made a very good point when he said that at the time the lump sum was given—and this is why hindsight is 20/20—no one expected that thalidomide survivors would live to become 50 years of age. Nobody understood how medicine worked to help people like that. New technologies and all sorts of things have helped thalidomide victims to survive to this time. Now that they are in their 50s, all of the problems of aging have occurred earlier in this group than they would for many of us. Hopefully, we can wait until we are well into our 80s before we get some of these problems, but the thalidomide victims have the problems now.
The lump sum the thalidomide victims are asking for may give them the ability to renovate their homes and have an appropriate environment in which to live. It is the yearly stipend that they are asking for that would bring forward the question of what they need on a yearly basis to get assisted living if they need it and to get the technical assistance and the equipment they need to help them live in their homes, work, and have meaningful and normal lives in the community.
If other illnesses happen to come with chronic aging, for most of us there is a health care system that will pick that up, and the thalidomide victims will get the health care they need if it is an acute problem. However, this is about being able, every day and every month, to address their needs on an ongoing basis until they no longer survive and no longer need that money. That is why I want the government to ensure that it will continue this yearly stipend and not just give another one-time lump sum payment.