Pauline Picard

[Hepatitis C, April 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, they should be the ones paying compensation, not the National Assembly. They are the ones with the money. How dare the government reject out of hand—

[Hepatitis C, April 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the government successfully gagged those Liberal members who wanted assistance to be provided to all victims of hepatitis C.

What does the Prime Minister have to say to his members, including the hon. member for Gatineau, who stated again this morning that the fight for hepatitis C victims was not over?

Did he definitely close the door on this issue yesterday or did he suggest to his members in private that work was continuing to eventually provide assistance to hepatitis C victims? We want to know.

[Hepatitis C, April 28th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the government continues to treat hepatitis C victims differently from HIV victims, claiming that the cost would be too high.

Why is the federal government, which is certainly not short of money, refusing fair and equitable treatment for hepatitis C victims?

[Hepatitis C, April 28th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Prime Minister suggested to recalcitrant Liberal members that there is a possibility of a new compensation program for excluded victims. The Minister of Human Resources Development ruled out this possibility, however, as did the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister.

Will the Deputy Prime Minister have the courage to admit that he alluded to the possibility of a new program for the sole reason of reassuring members such as the member for Gatineau and making sure that they vote against their convictions?

[Hepatitis C, April 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, they have the money, they should pay. We know that the Minister of Finance is currently ahead of his budget projections by some $21 billion.

With the federal government swimming in money, could it not find the few million dollars needed to repair the injustice done to the victims of hepatitis C who are not being compensated?

[Hepatitis C, April 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister.

A number of victims of hepatitis C have been ignored by the federal government, which continues to refuse to compensate them, despite the terrible injustice done to them and despite the recommendations of Mr. Justice Krever.

As the government continues to consider investing millions of dollars in professional sport, how can it remain so inflexible, categorically denying compensation to victims of hepatitis C who have been left out in the cold?

[Supply, April 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I would say that I am not at all in agreement and that I am very surprised by the stand taken by the hon. member, who made the headlines today with his extreme compassion for all hepatitis C victims and who, according to the newspapers anyway, would like to vote against his party line.

He tells us today that what is needed is the agreement of all provincial health ministers, when the provinces have reached their limit, as I gave figures to show earlier. So far, they have made an exceptional effort, doing everything they could.

I would like to tell the hon. member that, when this same government that is forking out $900 million for submarines to keep the military happy, that is spending $2.5 billion on millennium scholarships that nobody wants, and that is buying over $1 billion worth of helicopters, cannot even come up with a few million dollars to compensate all hepatitis C victims, I hang my head. It is unbelievable that the provinces are being asked to do more, when they must manage the health care system.

I appeal to the intelligence of all members of this government and urge them to vote in favour of the Reform motion.

[Supply, April 23rd, 1998]

As my colleague has just said, these cuts could even be called extraordinary.

When a government, which is also one of the key parties with responsibility in this entire affair, turns up with a zero deficit and a budget surplus which will probably be $20 billion by the end of 1998, I believe that finding a few million dollars to distribute among all hepatitis C victims is no big deal. Regardless of what may have happened, these people were contaminated through blood and need support.

Since coming to power, the Liberals have reduced the deficit—I want to refer to this again and I am going to provide figures—mainly by passing the buck to the provinces. Between 1994 and 2003, this will amount to $42 billion out of the coffers of Quebec and the Canadian provinces. That amounts to 52% of the cuts imposed, while the federal government's share amounts to barely 12%. This is an eloquent first clue as to the financial situation of the governments.

By the year 2003, Quebeckers and Canadians will face an additional $30 billion in federal cuts to health care, education and social assistance. The provinces, obviously, are going to have to figure out how to absorb them, as it is they who will have to bear the burden and not the federal government. In the meantime, the federal government is coming up with budget surpluses, and by 2000—and I say 2000 advisedly—the employment insurance fund will have accumulated an excess of $25 billion on the backs of workers, the unemployed and the sick.

The representatives of the governments that agreed to compensate the victims of Hepatitis C as humanely as possible did not all start off on the same footing in terms of their ability to pay.

The tainted blood scandal in Canada is a national tragedy, which appeals to Canadians' and Quebeckers' sense of compassion. The point of the exercise is not to point the finger, but more importantly to provide justice to the victims of a tragedy of unprecedented proportions.

This government prides itself on taking full responsibility for the safety of Canada's blood system. It can and must set up a special no fault program. Then, afterward, the issue of setting up a more extensive no fault system should be debated by Canadians as a whole.

For the time being, I invite all Liberal members in this House to support this motion to make it clear to the government that it has a moral and financial responsibility to correct an incredibly unfair situation.

[Supply, April 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise this morning in support of the Reform motion, which states “That this House urges the government to act on the recommendation of Justice Horace Krever to compensate all victims who contracted hepatitis C from tainted blood.”

When my leader made me responsible for health upon my arrival here in 1993, the tainted blood scandal was one of the very first issues I had to look into. I did so with great compassion for the victims of this tragedy. There are no words to describe what has certainly been one of the worst scandals of modern day medicine in Canada.

Since 1993, the Bloc Quebecois has asked more than 100 questions about the inquiry into the tainted blood scandal. These questions were always intended to advance the inquiry presided by Justice Krever. Parliamentarians will recall that this inquiry ran into some roadblocks. These roadblocks were not always set up by people outside this Parliament. The government of the day seemed intent on throwing a monkey wrench into the process so as to stifle the tainted blood inquiry.

The blood inquiry has gone on for four years and cost $15 million. We also know that documents that could have been very useful to the inquiry were destroyed and that this did not seem to worry the government unduly, because those who destroyed the documents have gone unpunished.

There were also the attempts to block Judge Krever's efforts through the courts. These attempts were never justified, any more than the sometimes extreme comments made about the inquiry.

In November 1996, the Prime Minister maintained that the law prevented him from disclosing documents that included transcripts of cabinet deliberations in 1984, the time when scientists were sounding warnings about the discovery of a dangerous new virus in blood banks.

We are being told that only those who contracted the disease between 1986 and 1990 are being compensated because, although that was when the facts were known, preventive measures had not been taken. We know that there were cabinet transcripts setting out the situation as early as 1984, so why were these documents not disclosed? One could suspect that they contained evidence that the government was starting to realize back then that the hepatitis C virus and other viruses were contaminating blood.

Under the current program announced by the federal and provincial health ministers in Toronto on March 27, the federal and provincial governments are going to contribute $1.1 billion to a compensation fund for hemophiliacs who contracted the disease, but only if they did so between January 1, 1986 and July 1, 1990.

This fund will also be used to help those individuals infected by a spouse or parent during this period, as well as those who contracted HIV from a spouse or parent infected by blood or blood products.

Of this amount, the federal government's share will be $800 million. The provinces will put up the other $300 million, and will contribute an additional $1.6 billion over the next 30 years for drugs and various forms of health care.

In my opinion, this represents an enormous effort, in these times of tight budgets and cuts to federal payments to the provinces.

The program is restricted to victims who contracted hepatitis C between 1986 and 1990, because the Red Cross and the governments did not take advantage of tests available, in the U.S. in particular, during that time. Prior to 1986, there was no effective test for detecting the disease, which was not known in the form hepatitis C takes today. The governments therefore acted in accordance with what was known at the time.

In my opinion, this program and the governments which signed it were in good faith. Now, however, with a bit of hindsight, we see certain signs that could enlighten us as to the birth of this program and all that could be added to it. We should keep in mind that the provinces will have to spend another $300 million, in addition to providing all health care services and drugs required, at a time when they have just experienced extraordinary cuts to the Canada social transfer.

[Hepatitis C, April 21st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, will the Prime Minister admit that he has the means to compensate all hepatitis C victims, since the billions he has cut the provinces are now in his pockets?