Bonnie A. Tough
Certified By The Law Society As A Specialist In Civil Litigation
E-Mail: bat@hodgsontough.on.ca
Direct Dial: (416) 304-6402
File No.: 1024
May 18, 2001
VIA FACSIMILE
Ms. Elaine G. Ashfield
Canadian Blood Services
Head Office/Siege social,
1800 Alta Vista
Ottawa, ON K1G 4J5
Dear Ms. Ashfield:
RE: HEP C CLASS ACTION
COST RECOVERY - CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES
The Joint Committee has had an opportunity to review the
revised cost recovery budget proposal for the period April
1, 2001 to March 31, 2002 which you have submitted.
As the budget document quite rightly points out, the major
concern of the Joint Committee is that tracebacks be accomplished
as expeditiously as possible in order that claimants not
be further delayed in having their entitlement determined
by the Administrator.
Ideally, the Joint Committee would like to see the six
month time provided for tracebacks in the Traceback Protocol
reduced to three months. Accordingly, the Joint Committee
is prepared to recommend the CBS budget to the courts for
approval subject to the understanding that we will be reviewing
the results with a view to reducing the time limit from
six months to three months. Our proposal would be to allow
CBS three or four months of operation under the new budget
and then have a meeting with you to assess the effectiveness
of the increased funding.
The Joint Committee is concerned that CBS and the staff
which will be allocated to this project understand that
the project is of limited duration. If we are able to expedite
tracebacks, we expect that the vast majority of the tracebacks
will be completed in the next twelve to eighteen months.
Accordingly we will be asking
CBS at some point in the future to "wind down"
its expenditures. The Joint Committee views these expenditures
as primarily of a temporarily or transient nature in order
to deal with the backlog of claimants requiring tracebacks.
Yours very truly,
Bonnie A. Tough
BAT:kb
c: H. Strosberg/H. Peterson
J.J. Camp/S. Matthews
P. Lavigne
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