House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2000, with 56% of the vote.
Hepatitis C April 30th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Justice Krever accepted the number estimate prepared by the director of the laboratory centre for disease control of the Department of Health. He was prepared to proceed on the basis of that analysis.
This decision was not made on the basis of numbers. Perhaps that is the way the member would approach it, by calculating numbers. We approach this on the basis of principle and we developed a proper public policy.
Hepatitis C April 30th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should know that Mr. Justice Krever himself accepted the numbers that were produced by the director of our laboratory centre for disease control. If the hon. member would read the Krever Report, which he likely has not, he would see that Dr. Paul Gully's numbers for the number of people infected in the relevant period was accepted by the Krever commission.
In any event this decision was not made on the basis of numbers. It was made on the basis of a proper principle that these members apparently do not understand. That is, you do not pay cash to people because they have become sick; you pay cash as damages because you did something wrong.
As for those who are sick, this country has the best medicare system.
Hepatitis C April 30th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, what has collapsed is the integrity and position taken by Ontario and Quebec. What has collapsed is the position they took with us that all victims during a period when governments were at fault should be compensated and beyond that there is no basis for doing so.
It is clear from what the hon. member said that she is not aware of what her own party members have said and done in Saskatchewan. They favour this approach. They favour this agreement because it is the right thing to do.
Hepatitis C April 30th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, what we witnessed yesterday in the National Assembly was a totally cynical act—
Hepatitis C April 29th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, while we are talking about fanciful calculations, maybe the minister could tell us how much money we saved in legal fees and how much time we saved by offering meaningful compensation to those infected between 1986 and 1990.
We have put the money where it should be, which is in meaningful compensation for those harmed by those responsible.
Hepatitis C April 29th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, this $1.1 billion is offered to blood injured Canadians, Canadians injured by reason of fault on the part of those responsible for administering the system.
There are 12 governments in this country committed to quality medicare, health care throughout the country for all victims of all illness and all harm, and medical research. That surely is the first and most important responsibility of government.
Hepatitis C April 29th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the governments of Canada dealt with the file of compensation and it is closed.
There is a second file on the desk of every minister of health of every government in this country. It is called medicare. It is called quality health care for all Canadians.
For Darlene Nicolaas, for Susan Wish and for all the other victims we can bring to mind, our most important responsibility is to make sure that through medical research, through quality care, through innovations we have talked about like home care and pharmacare, we provide what those victims need most.
Hepatitis C April 29th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, our first and most important obligation to Jennifer and all the other victims referred to yesterday, including all the victims I have met in the last 12 months, is to make sure we have the best health care system in the world, to make sure our social programs, whether disability benefits or others, are available to them in their time of need.
This government, along with all other governments in this country, has come to a responsible decision on compensation so that we can preserve the things that Jennifer needs most.
Hepatitis C April 29th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, we have had ample occasion during the last four weeks in this House and elsewhere to discuss this difficult issue. Throughout the debate we have made it very clear this government, along with every other government in Canada, has taken a responsible approach to offer to pay cash to those who were harmed because of fault on the part of the people who should have run the system better. For all the others our most important moral duty is to make sure there is a health care system there to protect and look after them as they become ill.
We intend to respect both these responsibilities.
Hepatitis C April 29th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has not kept his part of the bargain.
We also said that governments across this country had good information when they came to their position. They developed an agreement based on the assessment of the facts developed by departments of health across Canada. Indeed some provinces actually had trace back programs that identified specific numbers of people infected by bad blood.
We proceeded on good information in developing this policy.