Agreement announced in House of Commons

Here is the text of the announcement in the House of Commons:

Mr. Michael Savage (Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, on November 22, 2004, the Minister of Health announced the launch of discussions to explore options for financial compensation to Canadians infected with hepatitis C through the Canadian blood system in the class before 1986 and after July 1990.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health update the House on the status of these important discussions?

Hon. Robert Thibault (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to inform the hon. members of the House that the Minister of Health and legal representatives for individuals affected with the hepatitis C virus through the blood system before 1986 and after July 1, 1990, today announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding committing the federal government to provide compensation to those individuals.
Discussions will continue on both sides, as both sides negotiate the amounts and categories of compensation. By entering into this MOU both sides have made a clear commitment to the ongoing negotiation process.
The federal government will compensate the pre-1986, post-1990 class because it is the right and responsible thing to do.

Federal Government Commits to Compensation

The Federal Government and the lawyers for the Pre-86/Post-90 hepatitis C victims have entered into a memorandum of understanding in which the government commits to providing compensation. Last November, the government stated that they were willing to discuss the issue, and discussions have been ongoing ever since. Today, for the first time, the government has stated publicly that there will be a compensation program for people infected before 1986 or after July, 1990.

The details of the compensation program are still being negotiated. Claimants do not have to do anything at the moment to apply for the compensation. There will be further announcements once the program is finalized.

You can see the government's press release here, and the text of the memorandum of understanding here.

This is an important step. This is the first time the Federal Government has ever stated that there will be compensation for pre-86/post-90 victims.

We will continue to negotiate to finalize the settlement as quickly as possible.

Survey available online

The survey form is now available online for you to download, print, fill out and return to us. You can download it here. KPMG will be sending the survey form out in the mail, but by downloading it now and sending it in rather than waiting for the copy in the mail, you will be helping us to get our work done more quickly.

Survey coming soon

We are continuing to negotiate a settlement with the federal government. One of the things that has been holding us up is trying to get a good estimate of exactly how many people there are, and what their current state of health is. We'll be sending a survey form out to people over the next few weeks to get some of this information. When you receive it, please fill it in and return it as quickly as possible so that we can finalize our negotiations.

Welcome

I've set up this Weblog to provide more frequent updates on the status of compensation for people infected with hepatitis C through the blood system in Canada before 1986 or after 1990.

Check back here from time to time to see what's new.