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Location: What's New > Minister's Office > Speeches > May 24, 2007

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Speech by the Honourable Madeleine Meilleur, Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs and Minister of Community and Social Services

at the Annual General Meeting of the French Language Health Services Network of Eastern Ontario

Hampton Inn, Ottawa
Thursday, May 24, 2007

Thank you for inviting me to join you at this annual general meeting, as your tenth anniversary is fast approaching.

Today, as you will have guessed, I would like to talk to you about something that is truly close to my heart, both personally and professionally: French language health services.

Assembled before me I see the community leaders of Eastern Ontario when it comes to health care in French.

Above all I see among you the people who, in the aftermath of Montfort, had the courage to gather up their energy and their determination and give birth to the French Language Health Services Network of Eastern Ontario, the first of its kind in Ontario and in Canada.

With the passage of the years, it has become easy to see the ironic paradox to which the threat of Montfort's closure gave rise.

Indeed, from the darkest hours of the modern history of French Ontario there has emerged not only this founding network, but also 17 similar networks across the country, including three others in Ontario.

The role of builder and catalyst that you have played since your arrival is absolutely fundamental to the expansion of French language health services.

Equally fundamental is the fact that you have placed the French language and the community at the heart of your mandate.

The role played by language in the health of both individuals and communities is hard to define but it is definitely there.

It is reflected in reality by certain behaviours, certain habits, certain situations, both positive and negative.

The importance of the link between linguistic and cultural barriers and health has been slow to be understood, but it is starting to be accepted.

The inability to use one's language when dealing with the health system can have serious consequences.

As Dr. Alexander Green of the Harvard School of Medicine indicated in his presentation at the Société Santé en français's Third Rendez-vous last February, language barriers have an impact on health care.

According to Dr. Green, the impact can be:

Less likelihood of receiving care,
Less likelihood of understanding care,
Increased risk of medical errors,
Reduced quality of care,
Increased risk of unethical care, and
Less satisfaction with care.

Some of the same findings were also brought out in two reports on the health of Ontario's Francophones prepared by Gratien Allaire of the Institut franco-ontarien of Laurentian University and Louise Picard of the Sudbury and District Health Unit.

In light of these findings, the concept of "cultural competence" becomes as big as life.

There is increasing recognition of the fact that the patient's language and socio-cultural background must be understood: when life and health are at stake, there can be no question of improvising or muddling through.

In this respect, the provincial report Setting the Stage, to which you contributed last year, spoke, and continues to speak, volumes.

Please allow me to quote a short extract that I find particularly telling:

"When health care institutions and practitioners lack the necessary cultural competence to serve a specific population, access to services is inadequate, quality of care tends to suffer, and ultimately, the health status of that population is compromised."

The Ontario government shares this viewpoint, and it has adopted a grand plan to develop a reliable system of public health care.

The goal is to improve the overall health of Ontarians as well as the quality of the care they receive when they access services.

The plan focuses on three priority objectives.

1) Reducing wait times

2) Providing better access to doctors, nurses and other health care professionals

3) Keeping Ontarians healthy

Time does not permit me to go into detail on all of these priorities, but I can say that they apply to all Ontarians, including Francophones.

Of course, whenever we talk bout health care, we are also talking about health professionals.

We are all familiar with the shortage of health professionals capable of serving the Francophone community.

This shortage is not unique to Francophones but it is particularly acute in the Francophone community.

We must train and recruit more health professionals and do more to retain them within our networks.

Our government's plan has focussed on :

Increasing medical school enrolment – and here I am referring to, among others, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ottawa and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine;
More than doubling the number of training and assessment positions for international medical graduates;
Creating Family Health Teams made up of physicians and other health professionals.

Keeping Ontarians healthy also means preventing people from getting sick in the first place. The government made it a priority by creating the Ministry of Health Promotion.

This new ministry's areas of focus include tobacco control, healthy eating and physical activity.

And a great deal of effort has gone into increasing youth awareness through school-based programs.

I will now address one of the government's major reforms, the implementation of Local Health Integration Networks.

Let me remind you that the Local Health System Integration Act includes provisions that are important for Francophones.

In its preamble, the new act specifically recognizes the obligation to respect the requirements of the French Language Services Act.

It also requires Local Health Integration Networks to consult Francophones about the planning and delivery of health services at the local level.

I know that you are eagerly awaiting news about the regulatory framework that will govern the advisory council and planning entities.

With respect to the advisory council, things are moving forward.

In the next few weeks, the organizations named in the regulation will be called upon to put forward the names of candidates. We fully expect the new council to be up and running by September.

With respect to the planning entities, the ministry wishes to proceed methodically.

In fact, the ministry considers it important to conduct a full and proper consultation process with key players in the French language health services sector in order to gain a clear understanding of the issues.

It is extremely important to ensure that the planning entities regulation will definitely be a useful lever for the community.

It is also crucial that the regulation empower the community to bring its influence to bear on how health services are delivered on the ground.

That is why I believe we need to call upon those most closely involved, namely those Francophones who are very familiar with the health sector and are well aware of Francophones' priority needs in the different regions.

We all share the same objectives.

In the end we want to have in place a range of French language services that are fully accessible, delivered on a permanent basis and developed in collaboration with the community.

Things are not perfect, far from it, but they are getting better every day.

And when we stop to take stock of the situation, we find that things have changed a great deal, and for the better, since 2003.

No one who mentions French language health services in Ontario can do so without evoking Montfort, which has become at one and the same time a symbol of service, of recognition and now of hospital expansion.

I often talk about it because I am proud of this evolution.

As you are well aware, today Montfort is making a new beginning thanks to an additional government investment of 185 million dollars.

With this major investment in hospital modernization, the government is taking the side of families who want the best possible health care in French.

When the work is done, the hospital will have 417 beds – 289 for inpatients and 128 for long-term care.

Now we see that Montfort Hospital is being accorded its rightful place among the province's hospitals, through the number of patients it serves, through the quality of care it provides, through its technological and scientific advances, through the excellence of the specialists who find at Montfort a working and learning environment that meets their requirements.

Montfort has assumed a value that is both concrete and symbolic, not only for individuals but for all of Ontario's francophonie.

Yet, as important as Montfort is, it is not alone.

That is why we are taking action at all levels and in all regions.

In Eastern Ontario, between 2004 and 2006, the 33 agencies designated to provide services in French together received over 111 million dollars from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, including:

the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, which received 28 million dollars;
the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa, who were given 7 million dollars by our government for their health service and 1.1 million for their Résidence Saint-Louis;
the Hawkesbury General Hospital, which received 4.1 million dollars in funding;
the Centre de santé communautaire de l'Estrie, which was granted 610,000 dollars;
the Résidence Champlain, which received 235,000 dollars;
and the Centre de jour Guigues, which was granted 25,000 dollars;

And these are only a few examples.

Allow me also to draw you attention to some key advances in the area of community and social services and francophone affairs that have a ripple effect on the health system.

Since we came to power, we have practically tripled the funding for autistic children and youth and their families, increasing it to almost 130 million dollars for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

And our government continues to ensure that autistic children and youth and their families have access to the best possible services.

We have also made a firm commitment to fully integrating adults with a developmental disability into our communities.

Since 2003, the McGuinty government has invested a total of more than 500 million dollars in funding in programs for adults with a developmental disability.

This funding is concrete evidence of our commitment to improving services for adults with a developmental disability so that they are better able to transition into our communities.

On a different front, as you know, our government is definitely on the side of Francophones.

There has been unprecedented growth in French language education, thanks, in part, to 317 million dollars in additional funding.

Under our government, Ontario has passed the billion mark in terms of dollars flowed annually to French language schools, something previously unheard of in Canada.

I am also proud of TFO, this jewel in the crown of French Ontario, which has just been granted full governance with an independent board of directors and its own operating budget.

In addition, a historic page has been turned with the recent adoption by the Ontario Legislature of the bill creating the Office of the Commissioner of French Language Services, including health services.

This legislation marks a new and extremely important step in the evolution of relations between the provincial government and Ontario's francophonie and strengthens the foundations of the French Language Services Act, which was adopted 20 years ago.

The Office of the Commissioner of French Language Services will give Francophones a stronger voice as well as more transparent and effective recourse in ensuring respect for their right to receive services, including health services, in French.

This bill will even help to modernize the French Language Services Act by conferring regulatory power.

This power will enable ministers of Francophone Affairs to propose amendments to regulate its application.

As you can see, the government has shown its active support for community development through many, many concrete actions.

For our government it is important that all segments of our society contribute to the betterment of Ontario

I would like to thank you once again for your contribution to the building of a strong and healthy Ontario francophonie and I wish you a successful annual general meeting.

Thank you!