It's a new act that was passed two years ago. It concerns French-language services in all the departments, not just Health. The community has been involved in introducing the regulations. There was a lot of consultation at first. The health field has been defined as one of the priorities for the offer of services in French.
This will make it possible to identify services and access to French-language services where there are concentrations of Acadians. The government has even identified the agencies concerned: this affects all the authorities where there are Francophones in the province. It also concerns third parties who work on contract, such as the VON and ambulance services.
Within three years, we should see an enormous change in French-language services in Nova Scotia, at all levels. The province has already established a “bonjour” identification system. Our own “bonjour” is blue. It's like the Nova Scotia blue. There's also a small yellow star. So you immediately recognize the professionals. That was implemented even before the regulations were revealed.
I think the province takes the issue of French-language services very seriously. I don't believe we need to convince you that health services in the language of the patient are important.