The network itself, for which I chair the board of directors, includes all francophone organizations from several districts in Eastern Ontario, where 226,000 francophones live. The network is primarily responsible for planning and needs assessment. It is made up of 66 organizations.
We have various structures. We have hospitals, naturally, that receive their funding solely from the Ontario Ministry of Health. Then we have community organizations. We have community health care centres which also receive their funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. These community health care centres are primary health care centres where we deal with mental health and where doctors meet patients. As members of the network, we also have mental health organizations that also members of community health care centres. They are funded in different ways, but generally, many of them are funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. They are all under provincial jurisdiction since we are talking about health care.
However, the network is fortunate to receive funding from both the federal and provincial levels. We were lucky enough to maintain our network until it was officially recognized by the provincial government, as I stated in my presentation. So we are funded by the provincial government and by the federal government, in the latter case, through Société Santé en français and the Department of Canadian Heritage. The network does not provide services directly to the general public. Instead, it is an organization that brings together other health care organizations that offer services in French and that help hospitals in our region obtain designation under the French Language Services Act. Members of the network can then help others, thanks to their expertise, to meet the conditions for designation established by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.