In Quebec, people are entitled to service in English, because this is guaranteed under the Quebec Health Act. So, the legislation has very clear guidelines for our partners in the health care system. From time to time, public institutions officially identify services that are available in English. For example, an executive director and his or her staff may announce that a home care program is available—in other words that there is a multidisciplinary team and enough resources to provide services in English on an on-going basis. The executive director will make it clear that the institution is ready to be part of this home care program. We have an obligation to ensure that there is a genuine offer of service in English.
There are initiatives in place in all parts of Quebec to identify services. Next spring, the government must approve all of these plans. This is a very important instrument for guiding what goes on in the network.
The other important factor is a desire on the part of professionals to improve their ability to provide better service to their English-speaking clients. All our efforts and successes are based on the desire of health care professionals to provide better service to these clients. This was very encouraging and helpful for example in the case of an institution that will be working closely with a group of volunteers to improve a program for seniors. We mentioned a few specific examples earlier of how this works in practice.