Evidence of meeting #14 for Official Languages in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was projects.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:45 a.m.
Bloc
Vivian Barbot Bloc Papineau, QC
You said that your organization is not a lobby group, but a partner. Could you explain the difference between the two?
9:45 a.m.
President and Director General, Société Santé en français
A lobby group formulates a request and then withdraws, whereas we discuss issues with our partners and ask them to share our problems. We think that everyone should participate by proposing solutions.
A lobby group usually demands something of the government but does not sit down with it to identify better solutions, and does not ask for any collaboration.
Furthermore, we would like professionals like Dr. Fortier, government representatives like Donald DesRoches, people from the community and training specialists to participate. We feel that we can come up with more solutions if we work together than if we all wave our own flags, make suggestions and then go home.
The difference is an extremely important one. In my opinion, we have succeeded in reaching governments. I met with the health ministers of almost all the Maritime and western provinces, including British Columbia and Manitoba. The ministers appreciate this approach so much that they send officials to our networking committees to work with us in finding better strategies. This approach results in a much better outcome than sending letters and holding press conferences.
9:45 a.m.
Bloc
Vivian Barbot Bloc Papineau, QC
I would like to clarify a point regarding lobby groups. I think you can reach the same goals without eliminating lobby groups because, with all due respect, your description of them is rather stereotypical.
There may be some lobby groups that act like that...
October 5th, 2006 / 9:45 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I am sorry, I did not want to do his work for him. We like him and he does good work.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I agree with Ms. Barbot's comments with respect to the video. If I have understood correctly, when French is spoken, there are English subtitles but when English is spoken there is nothing. Yet health is discussed in French.
Can the video be corrected? I think it is important.
9:45 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I think it would be good for you.
You are not a lobby group, you do not protest and you do not leave people to deal with issues on their own. That is what I understood and I respect that. We need people to apply pressure and we need others who want to stay put. We need mediators in between both. You are more like mediators and we appreciate your work.
Take New Brunswick, for example, under the previous Conservative government. Did we miss the boat with respect to francophones in that province? The francophone hospitals were shut down in the north of the province — Caraquet, Lamèque, Dalhousie and Saint-Quentin. The lobby group took to the streets and finally got six beds. At the same time, a large anglophone hospital was built in the south of the province.
Obstetric services were lost throughout the Acadian peninsula, which is home to 60,000 people. These people now risk having women give birth in ambulances. Two births have occurred in ambulances since last year. Yet the government says that in Bathurst, doctors are not qualified to assist women in giving birth unless they are specialists. Furthermore, this service is going to be transferred to Campbellton, which is two hours from Bathurst.
So for francophones, an ambulance driver is qualified to assist women in giving birth — I am talking about the francophone community — but the service you are providing in Moncton, with all due respect...
Hopefully your cousin will continue to provide this service and he will not close other hospitals in the north in his new capacity as Minister. I would pay special attention because when a minister comes from the area, he closes hospitals. That is what has happened to us.
So what can your group, that you are so proud of — and rightly so — do to help an area like ours where francophones are being struck at a speed of 400 miles an hour?
9:50 a.m.
President and Director General, Société Santé en français
I must be very careful about getting into the details that you are describing because that is the responsibility of our New Brunswick network. In each province our network works with the government and is finding better solutions. When that happened, our network was in a process of being created. It was not therefore firmly in the saddle nor sufficiently established in order to work with the government in making the best choices.
I do not want to get into the debate on hospitals versus community health centres. We have seen across the country that provinces have similar strategies. What we are trying to do is improve primary health care. That was one of the first issues we focussed on. Saskatchewan and Alberta are facing significant challenges in transforming hospitals into community health centres.
Of course, that can lead to problems in terms of obstetric and other services. I think our network should continue to discuss this because when those decisions were made, our network was only just being established. That was approximately two and a half years ago. Our network was just starting up at the time.
As Mr. Fortier pointed it out, our network is more firmly established now and in a position to have positive discussions with each of these governments. We hope that we can continue to influence policies to the advantage of francophones so that access becomes as close as possible to 100 per cent.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I would like to congratulate the Société Santé en français. In some of our areas radio messages for seniors are broadcast. For example, an elderly woman said that she used to give her pills to someone else and she did not realize the harm she might be doing.
Is that something your network does?
9:50 a.m.
President and Director General, Société Santé en français
Yes, health messages are something we have thought of. We do not just consider the very specialized services because that only affects a small part of the population. Francophones have told us that we should be focussing more on prevention and health promotion. We undertake activities such as health broadcasts or health forums for seniors — we have been responsible for some very big projects in New Brunswick that were very popular — in order to teach people how to take responsibility for their health.
The documents that we have brought along include many things that relate to prevention and health promotion, to people taking as much responsibility for themselves as possible. Even the Canada Public Health Agency, in my opinion, should be contributing to the strategies because this is also part of its mandate.
9:50 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
There is also the issue of community clinics. Which clinics do you support: private clinics or public clinics?
9:50 a.m.
President and Director General, Société Santé en français
I will not enter the private-public debate this morning.
9:50 a.m.
President and Director General, Société Santé en français
We work within the public system in Canada and all the community health centres that we are currently working with are regional creatures of the provincial governments, whether they are in Edmonton, Saint-Boniface, Cornwall, Sudbury or Prince Edward Island. These are all organizations that exist within the public system.
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Daniel Petit Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you very much.
Mr. Gauthier, Mr. Fortier and Mr. DesRoches, I would like to begin by thanking you. Congratulations for having created the Société Santé en français; it is excellent.
I would like to talk about a very specific situation and then I will ask you a question. The Province of Quebec shares a border with New Brunswick. In the area near the border with New Brunswick, many people in Quebec do not have access, in Quebec, to big hospitals such as those in Campbellton or Moncton. In order to obtain those services, they have to go to New Brunswick. However, if I understood correctly, your organization provides assistance in getting access to francophone doctors. People in my province have to go to New Brunswick because it is closer and because they can get oncologists, doctors and nurses who speak French. I know that your group, at least until recently, has exerted considerable pressure in order to obtain services in French in New Brunswick, that we are benefiting from.
My first question is this. Do you get funding from Quebec? Our people benefit. As a prosecutor, as a lawyer, I have often seen doctors from New Brunswick testify in Quebec in car accident cases. That is why I'd like to know if you are receiving any funding.
My second question is this: in minority situations, that is, in francophone minority communities, which project would you say has been your most important one to date, after two years? Which has been the strongest? Which has been your very best over the two past years, regardless of province?
9:55 a.m.
President and Director General, Société Santé en français
The answer to your first question with respect to Quebec is yes, Quebec has been providing us with assistance for two years. They pay for one full-time person to work with us, in our organization, and it is that person in fact who has helped us plan our services throughout the country. It is a three-year agreement and Quebec has renewed it for another three years. We do receive funding from Quebec.
Furthermore, we have been working with people from the University of Sherbrooke, for example. We also work on certain issues with people from Quebec who provide us with advice and assistance that we do not have to pay for. In terms of public health in particular, there is considerable expertise in Quebec that we can benefit from. Even though I am Franco-Manitoban—I have worked in Manitoba for a long time—I have also worked in Quebec. I know many people in Quebec and we try to use existing resources to the greatest extent possible.
You ask which projects we are most proud of. I would first like to point out that I understand the issue of lobby groups: it is important to have lobby groups and we have them in our community, but we do not need to do the work that others are already doing. I respect what they do and I think that what they do is important. I simply wanted to explain what we do in order that you be able to distinguish it from what others do. Everyone has their niche in life and that is a good thing. I do not have a problem with that. But I did want to make sure that we understand each other.
In our opinion, our greatest success was our networking idea. From the outset, our challenge was to figure out how to work with governments within the current context involving changes in the health sector.
How can one become involved without being perceived as an enemy, but rather as an ally working with provincial governments and moving forward? We are very proud of our networks and how they have managed to become integrated into health systems and help them move forward in a way that has never happened before.
Six or seven of our projects are probably, in our opinion, the most interesting and promising ones. They could even give other people ideas. That is why we published Déjà des résultats in French and Positive Results Already in English. Our documents include the five or six projects that we think are the most successful.
That being said, the funding that we are expecting—that Treasury Board will no doubt grant us today—will make 18 other similar projects possible. They are what we call our flagship projects, projects that will give direction and provide the best possible solutions for the future. This will also lead to increased access to health care beyond the current 50 per cent.
Those are my answers to your questions.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to our guests.
If I understood correctly, you stated earlier that the 2002 study showed that only 55 per cent of francophones received services in French. Is that correct?
