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MONTREAL, QUEBEC–(Marketwired – March 30, 2016) – In direct contradiction to the promise made by the Liberal Party of Canada during the 2015 election campaign not to attempt to recover the quarter-billion dollar surplus in the Trust Fund for the 1986-1990 Hepatitis C Settlement Agreement, the Attorney General of Canada has requested that the entire surplus be allocated to “Canada.”
In a letter to the Canadian Hemophilia Society (CHS) signed by Liberal Party President Anna Gainey on October 5, 2015, the Liberal Party of Canada promised, if elected, not to attempt to recover the surplus but rather to “respect the purpose of this fund and support its use for the compensation of victims.” The CHS considers the letter to be a clear assurance that a Liberal government would ask the courts to allocate the surplus to those affected by tainted blood during this period, including to late claimants otherwise eligible. It has turned out that the elected Liberal government has not kept its firm promise.
The CHS has been in touch with the offices of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health over the last weeks in an attempt to have the Minister instruct the Attorney General to take a less rigid position with the courts regarding allocation of the surplus. The Minister’s office has indicated an unwillingness to reconsider.
When the surplus was recognized by the fund’s actuaries in 2015, a Joint Committee, whose members were appointed by the courts, the CHS and other community-based groups held extensive consultations with affected members and their families to gather their opinions on the allocation of the surplus. It became clear that many of the 5,322 class members and 8,860 family class members had not received adequate compensation for their injuries and that the surplus should be used to enhance current benefits. When the settlement was created in 1999, the benefits payable were made to fit within the fund provided: the risk of error was borne almost entirely by the claimants.
Loss of employment income, reduction in pension benefits, increased home and health care costs and denial of insurance are just a few of the direct economic impacts of hepatitis C related disease.
Given the many unmet needs and as the fund was created with a predetermined amount, and not based on the total projected needs of class members, allocation of the surplus to enhance benefits to class members according to the spirit of the original settlement should be at the core of the position of the Government of Canada. No portion of the Trust Fund’s projected surplus should be returned to any level of government at this time.
“Any attempt by the federal government to claw back or reallocate the surplus,” said CHS President Craig Upshaw, “is seen by the people affected as a cash grab compounding Canada’s worst public health disaster.”
More information as well as an advocacy tool kit can be found on the CHS website at:
http://www.hemophilia.ca/en/hcv-hiv/hepatitis-c-and-hiv-compensation/chs-response-to-86-90-surplus/
http://www.hemophilia.ca/en/hcv-hiv/hepatitis-c-and-hiv-compensation/chs-response-to-86-90-surplus/take-action–86-90-surplus-toolkit/
Read complete press release here: http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/liberal-governments-quarter-billion-dollar-broken-promise-that-no-one-talks-knows-about-2110112.htm