Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee.
My name is Nicole Robert. I am the chair of the board of directors of the Réseau des services de santé en français de l'Est de l'Ontario. Allow me to introduce Mr. Marc Laflamme, from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, who will speak to you in a few minutes about a wonderful project called FrancoForme.
The Eastern Ontario health system includes 20 hospitals, 66 community support services organizations, 26 mental health community organizations, 8 community health centres, 1,240 family physicians and 1,450 specialists. Of this number, 66 agencies are said to be designated or identified, meaning that they are compelled by the province to offer health services in French.
My intention in presenting these figures is not to draw easy inferences. Rather, I'm trying to show you the dynamic environment in which the Réseau de l'Est operates, in order to give you a better picture of the issues facing French language health care services, the impact of our network on access, and the relevance of an ongoing commitment to health care for official language minority communities.
The mandate of the Réseau de l'Est is to ensure access to the entire range of high-quality health care services, in French, to the 226,000 francophones in Eastern Ontario. Overall, the francophone population represents 20 per cent of the total population of the region, but our representatives in the House of Commons will quickly point out that this proportion goes up to 40 per cent in certain communities of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry and up to 70 per cent in the counties of Prescott and Russell.
What this means is that access is particularly important for the francophone clientele and for the institutions that are members of the network and which provide service delivery in French. The network ensures that its mandate is fulfilled in cooperation with its partners through planning, development and evaluation of French-language services throughout its territory.
The network was established following a decision of the Ontario Health Services Restructuring Commission in August 1997. It was recognized as an independent advisory body in 2002 pursuant to a memorandum of understanding signed by Mr. Tony Clement when he was Minister of Health and Long-Term Care for Ontario.
The network is made up of 61 health care institutions and organizations as well as post-secondary educational institutions that offer health care services in French in Eastern Ontario.
In order to fulfil its mandate, the network put in place a cooperative structure bringing together various stakeholders in the field of health care, forming sectoral committees and working groups. The participants are mainly representatives of health care agencies, members of the francophone community and representatives of other sectors such as social services.
Moreover, the network is linked to three other French language health care networks in Ontario as well as 13 networks that operate in other provinces and territories through the Société Santé en français.
A significant portion of the network's mandate consists in supporting the development of French language health care services in the Champlain territory. For eight years now, the network has provided assistance and custom advice to hospitals and community health care organizations that are involved in the designation process pursuant to the Ontario French Language Services Act. To varying degrees, these agencies are working to ensure that French-language services are provided through activities such as recruitment and staffing of human resources capable of working in French; the organization of intake and direct delivery services; French-language communication; continuity of French-language services within the agency and with regard to other agencies throughout the system.
In concrete terms for the population of Eastern Ontario, these actions translate into the proactive provision of health care services for a francophone clientele, who can thus identify French-language services and make use of them.
The network has also piloted a public awareness project on health care careers among students in French-language schools, in order to facilitate the future recruitment of health care professionals. The network also supports health care organizations and francophone community in the development of initiatives and health care programs that involve primary health care among other things, in the county of Renfrew as well as in the region of Kingston and the Thousand Islands.
In 2003, the network managed a total of $1.4 million granted by the Primary Health Care Transition Fund, Health Canada and the Société Santé en français. Twenty-three projects were submitted in the region of which nine were approved.
In order to illustrate the tangible impact of the PHCTF's project initiatives and the enthusiasm it aroused among its partners, I would mention the example of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Wilbert Keon, who is also a senator.
I will now invite Mr. Marc Laflamme, Coordinator of FrancoForme to present the results of the chosen project.