Very well.
Canada's new government will focus on five key priorities for Canadians, the fifth being to deliver the health care Canadians need.
Your committee is interested in proposals that will ensure Canada's place in a competitive world, starting firstly with actions which will ensure that our citizens are in good health.
How will this goal be reached? We are confronted with two choices: increased spending in the present system based mostly on acute care or long-term investments directed towards prevention.
I'm happy to be here today to make you aware of a Primary Health Care project in Notre Dame de Lourdes, a project which comes within the framework of this second choice.
Our project closely follows Health Canada recommendations, and was initiated with the help of a grant from the Primary Health Care Transition Fund.
This community centre will provide access to a wide range of services, including health promotion, sickness and injury prevention, and management of chronic illness; it will offer primary and social health care in both official languages, French and English. In addition, we will form partnerships with other francophone communities in the province to provide services to the francophone population in the area.
We have adopted a pragmatic approach, which consists in sharing services with the regions of Saint-Claude and Saint-Jean-Baptiste by using a travelling health team, a service delivery model on which Manitoba's Central Regional Health Authority is working together with the Manitoba Centre Issue Table.
The construction of a community health centre in Notre Dame de Lourdes will be the corner stone for supporting health services delivery in French in our region.
A primary health care initiative can only be achieved through a federal-provincial-community partnership. Coming in at a cost of $3.1 million, and work is now well under way, our project is no exception to this rule. Our community has covered half the cost of the project, and the province, through the Manitoba Central Regional Health Authority has contributed $500,000. Private foundations have also pledged money. Only the federal government is left to pledge its contribution to fulfil its obligation towards its linguistic minority.
In conclusion, I would urge your committee to seriously consider renewing the financing of the Primary Health Care Transition Fund. But, I would especially like you to find a mechanism of one sort or another so that a financial investment could be made in community projects such as ours. It is only by enhancing the overall health of our community that we will be able to reduce the fiscal burden on our health care systems.
Thank you for listening.