Evidence of meeting #17 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 immigrants.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Do you have any expectations with respect to the hospitals in Hawkesbury and Alexandria in terms of jobs?
Director of Health sciences, La Cité Collégiale
In fact, this year, some students in respiratory therapy will be going back there to do their practicums. In addition, the CNFS has authorized the reimbursement of part of their expenses, because these students will have to travel, etc. So they will be doing a four-day practicum in these hospitals.
President, La Cité Collégiale
And yes, we will be reimbursing their expenses.
So there are things that can be done, but in the health field, decentralizing is always a challenge because of the related costs.
One of the reasons why programs were grouped together in Ottawa, especially for three-year programs, which are more expensive, was that it was impossible to provide high-quality training and have infrastructure in more than one place. That is always a major challenge for us.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Okay.
You work in conjunction with the Hawkesbury Hospital, but also with the Alexandria Hospital, because there are many Franco-Ontarians living there.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Guy Lauzon
Thank you, Mr. Lemieux.
We will have a two or three-minute round, because as I said, our time is limited.
Mr. Murphy, you have the floor.
October 24th, 2006 / 9:45 a.m.
Liberal
Brian Murphy Liberal Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I too hope that the federal government will increase its support for this program.
I am from New Brunswick, and I have no doubt that there are many programs in the province. Assuming I were a member for another region, from Nova Scotia, for example. My question is simple. Are you sure that it is fair to divide up the funding and to choose the programs to be supported from among the francophone minority populations in the country? Is it fair and reasonable to do that? You are not favouring Mr. Godin's community, or Mr. Simard's community, or any other one.
President, La Cité Collégiale
We wouldn't even want to give preferential treatment to those.
To answer your question, I will explain the role of the Consortium national de formation en santé.
In the health care sector, we've seen that the provinces other than Quebec are not really on a playing field level. You are right; New Brunswick, Ontario and British Columbia don't all have the same training capacity. We try to create synergy between 10 institutions to increase the capacity to provide training in regions where almost nothing has been done in the past.
The example of Nova Scotia was a perfect one, because there were no paramedic programs. When we started to work together people told us that they were starting from scratch, and that there were no French-language programs. So we got together with them and we helped them adapt their program to their reality, to their province and their standards. Now, they offer that program.
It wasn't enough to say that these were 10 institutions that worked in parallel and that were fighting to obtain as much money as possible. In addition to that, we had to determine how to go about to increasing the ability to provide French-language training across Canada, while paying attention to regional retention. That means that we must not attract them to Ottawa and keep them here. We have a responsibility to take action so that there is in fact retention.
One of the main objectives of phase 3 of the CNFS was to provide a good follow-up system. For instance, there are institutions such as the University of Ottawa that have certain mechanisms. That's one of our main challenges, and we have to work together so that this doesn't favour only one province. All the provinces have to be at the same level. In addition, they're not all starting from the same point.
Conservative
Daniel Petit Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Good morning Ms. Lortie, Ms. Cloutier.
First of all thank you. You made a very good presentation. I missed a few minutes of it, but your work is nevertheless extraordinary, because you're working under two jurisdictions at the same time: federal and provincial. Goodness knows that's not easy. Indeed, the provinces are often jealous of their respective powers and sometimes the federal government wants to interfere when we don't want it to.
The topic of my question is education. Of course, when we talk about education, we're always talking about bringing the student to us, that is to our educational institutions. You also talked about distance education and the Collège Éducacentre in Vancouver, among others.
Is this a "modern" way of operating the one you promote, if only to provide training to francophones in Vancouver who may be interested in a course in practical nursing? These people could take a theoretical course through a video and camera system among other things. Of course it may be different for practical courses. Do you promote this option because it may be the only way to save some money, maximize your budget and perhaps broaden your sphere of activity?
President, La Cité Collégiale
To answer your question, it's ironic to see that the only thing that was cut in phase 2 was e-learning. We did this because we all agree that this is a non-negotiable option for francophones in Saskatchewan and those who live in small communities.
In phase 3, we are in the process of preparing the 10 institutions, and e-learning is a large part of that. This time, we hope it will happen. It's certainly the way of the future, one of the ways of the future.
In each province, there are francophone organizations. There is the Saint-Jean Campus of the University of Alberta, the Service fransaskois d'éducation des adultes, the SEFFA, the Collège Éducacentre in British Columbia. We have to take into account how we can work with these small critical masses. Indeed, there are health components that will always require some one-to-one training. So we're more or less forced to combine our training delivery styles.
So phase 3 is a major priority for all the institutions in the consortium.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Guy Lauzon
Thank you, Ms. Lortie.
Ms. Brunelle, you may ask the next question.
Bloc
Paule Brunelle Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
Good morning, ladies. As you put it so well, health care is a matter of provincial jurisdiction. I would like to know the total budget of the Consortium national de formation en santé.
Secondly, what amount do you receive from the federal government? How is this assistance sent to you? Do you receive the money directly or is it through a provincial ministry of education?
President, La Cité Collégiale
The overall budget is $64 million for the current phase, phase 2. The Cité collégiale receives $4.3 million. The money comes directly from Health Canada, and the 10 institutions sign 10 agreements with Health Canada.
When the Cité collégiale received the funds, we signed an agreement directly with Health Canada. We were responsible for certain outcomes, namely the enrolment level, the number of graduates and the number of placements. Therefore there were very specific elements in this contractual agreement.
President, La Cité Collégiale
We receive $4.3 million, but the consortium receives $64 million.
President, La Cité Collégiale
The total budget of the Cité collégiale is about $56 million.
Bloc
Paule Brunelle Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
So you're saying that this is done directly through agreements, based on the number of students and so forth. That being the case, isn't this an attempt to interfere directly in an area of provincial jurisdiction supposedly in an effort to provide French-language services?
President, La Cité Collégiale
If the consortium didn't exist, the initiatives I told you about, the links with the collège Éducacentre and the joint programs that we're developing with New Brunswick would not exist either.
That's why I tried to give you many examples of truly interprovincial efforts. In Ontario, obviously we receive funding for health care training, but that's really local training, and interprovincial interventions and initiatives are not funded at all.
The consortium allowed us to increase the clientele from outside the province and organize important activities with other provinces, especially those where there's very little training in French.
Bloc
Paule Brunelle Bloc Trois-Rivières, QC
You say that you had agreements with the University of Sherbrooke. Were they signed directly with the consortium?
Director of Health sciences, La Cité Collégiale
The consortium, which includes 10 institutions, signed an agreement between Quebec and New Brunswick, and this year for the first time, 24 students were able to start the medicine program in Moncton.