Thank you Mr. Lemieux for asking this excellent question. This is an important question at this stage of the project.
Phase II of the project extends from 2003 to 2008. You might think that 2008 is in two years, but that is not so. April 2008 is in a few months. We absolutely must get a sign from the government in the coming months to know where we are going at the CNFS.
The 10 member institutions of the CNFS have already committed funding and accepted students, who are now in the middle of training, and that will continue. That is why we see this as an essentially permanent Health Canada program.
Phase I of the CNFS went from 1999 to 2003 and Phase II goes from 2003 to 2008. Phase III has different objectives. The first objective is to continue training and to expand on the training capacity of the existing programs, to evaluate these programs and to refocus our target, if necessary, to make it right. We can target and expand the training of front-line health professionals, those who interact directly with patients. It is at this level that the issue of language is so important. We have to train surgeons, but when a person is asleep, they do not necessarily have direct contact with the surgeon. We have to target front-line professionals: family medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and so forth.
It is important to get a quick sign from the government for Phase III because there are other aspects. The second aspect we might have to improve is professional training. A number of Francophones in minority regions, for example nurses or doctors, who were trained within the framework of the CNFS 5, 10 or 15 years ago now want to upgrade their training and have professional training. What will they do?
In a minority situation, people are trained in English for upgraded and professional training. What we want to do during the course of Phase III is offer these people additional, professional and upgraded training.
Another very important aspect that also targets federal government priorities is the issue of new immigrants. We have to be able to welcome and monitor throughout the process new immigrants who already have training in health care. If they receive nursing training in a country other than Canada and the professional orders do not recognize them directly, we have to be able to give them complementary training to make them active as soon as possible in their Francophone minority area. This objective is part of Phase III, but we are already working on it in Phase II. We would like year end funding to contribute to better launching this initiative.