Official Languages Committee on Feb. 9th, 2011

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

You don't have it, though?

[Shannon Gullberg]

I don't have that.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

And the commissioner, Madam Jerome...? No?

Okay. I'm getting signals here that my time's up, so....

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Indeed, Mr. Bélanger. Thank you.

The floor is yours, Ms. Guay.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question has to do with health care.

Is everything okay, Ms. Jerome?

[Sarah Jerome]

Yes.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

We saw that this was a major challenge in Whitehorse and that there were a lot of problems as far as health care is concerned, especially in specialized fields, due to highly technical terminology. Even in your own language, you sometimes have trouble understanding doctors when they explain treatments. I can imagine that it’s a problem when the explanation is in a language that you do not master. What’s more, in the Northwest Territories, you’ve got the additional challenge of nine aboriginal languages.

Are there any services available for these folks to ensure that they get the proper treatment they need in their own language, understand what their problem is, what drugs they need or what treatments they require?

[Shannon Gullberg]

Maybe first in response to that, if you look on the website for the report I did on health care, I think that will help you understand to some extent what some of the issues are.

There are official positions that are translators--for example, at Stanton Territorial Hospital--and those people can be accessed through other health care facilities. Sarah has that report here if you want a copy of it. They could also be accessed through other hospitals and clinics. There are also some nurses and physicians who are bilingual francophones and can be accessed, but one of the recommendations in this report is that.... It's only by word of mouth that someone might hear of a doctor who is bilingual only by word of mouth and that's who you may choose to go to see. So there are ways of making that general knowledge more prominent and more available to the public.

The other thing, too, is that just with the way health care and technology are going, I think there are fewer and fewer reasons, regardless of where you are in Canada, why you can't access services through Telehealth so you can deal with a francophone nurse or a francophone doctor and comfortably understand what's going on. One of the concerns and complaints used to be that someone would be critically ill and some family member would be trying to do the translation or interpretation for them. Family members don't have the technical skill, but also they're very probably not in the best emotional state to be dealing with that anyway. That was one of the issues.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

And what about for aboriginals folks?

[Shannon Gullberg]

I'm sorry--

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

And for aboriginals?

[Shannon Gullberg]

That's for the francophone community as well, where someone would be there.... I mean, they could try to access somebody, but if it's late at night they might have difficulty, so a family member steps in. That's not the answer.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Yesterday, at the legislative assembly, we were told that health and education were the two biggest portfolios. Unless I’m mistaken, you still have your work cut out for you in both those areas.

[Shannon Gullberg]

I agree, and if you want a copy of this report, it gives some idea of it.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Yes, if you could pass that on to our clerk it would be most appreciated.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Ms. Guay.

I have taken note of the proposal to obtain your report on health care here in the Northwest Territories.

We shall now turn to Mr. Lauzon.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be sharing my time with Mr. Galipeau.

Mrs. Jerome, we had a chance to speak a little bit earlier. I'm very interested in your village. It's quite a distance from here. You told me that there are about 800 residents in your village.

[Sarah Jerome]

Yes.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

What is the predominant language spoken?

[Sarah Jerome]

English.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

English? What percentage would that be?

[Sarah Jerome]

I would say that maybe 80% to 85% speak English.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Is there any French spoken?

[Sarah Jerome]

In our community? No.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

So the other 15% or so would be your native--