Official Languages Committee on Nov. 9th, 2006

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

I'd like to begin by wishing you all a good morning. As you know, the Standing Committee on Official Languages is currently on a cross-country tour. This is the first tour the committee has done in 25 years, since it was created. Last year, or two years ago, we decided to do this cross-country trip to meet people on the ground. This did not happen because of the election. We therefore started over. The election can come quickly to Ottawa and that is why we decided to get off to an early start this time around.

It is a great pleasure for this parliamentary committee to meet with you and to listen to you. Sylvie Boucher, Pierre Lemieux and Daniel Petit represent the Conservative government. To my left, is Jean-Claude D'Amours, who represents the official opposition, and Ms. Viviane Barbot, who represents the Bloc Québécois. My name is Yvon Godin and I represent the NDP. Normally I would be sitting beside Ms. Barbot. We have other people with us as well, the research staff, the clerks and the interpreters.

The committee gave itself the mandate to meet with people in their own regions, for the purposes of discussing the $700 million action plan for minorities and assessing the current situation. At the same time, we would also like to learn about the health network situation.

We therefore welcome you. There will be three groups. Each group will have eight minutes. You were perhaps told that this would be three minutes, but I think that with eight minutes we will have had time to hear what you have to say. We will then move on to questions. Each questioner will have five minutes. We'll try to do a few rounds.

Who will begin?

Ms. Rauzon-Wright.

[Nicole Rauzon-Wright, President, Réseau franco-santé du Sud de l'Ontario]

Good morning, my name is Nicole Rauzon-Wright. I am the volunteer President of the Réseau franco-santé du Sud de l'Ontario (Franco Health Network of Southern Ontario). Thank you so much for having invited us this morning. I am here today, along with Jean-Marc Boisvenue, to talk to you about the situation of French-language health services in Ontario, more specifically in Southern Ontario.

It is through the Société Santé en français that we obtained funding for Setting the Stage, a French-language health services planning project. This is a national initiative. Thus, this is not only happening in Ontario, but throughout Canada. The project is funded by Health Canada through the Primary Health Care Transition Fund. It covers official language minority communities.

[Jean-Marc Boisvenue, Executive Director, Réseau franco-santé du Sud de l'Ontario]

Access to French-language health services in Ontario is by no means a new issue, having been of concern to both the community and the provincial government for some time. However, despite the progress that has been made since the adoption of the French Language Services Act in 1986, in Southern Ontario access to primary health care services in French is far from guaranteed. At the heart of the problem are a number of factors: few or no recognized access points, a shortage of French-speaking human resources, poor utilization of the existing resources, programs poorly tailored to the needs of Southern Ontario's diverse francophone communities, and francophone scant input into the planning and management of primary health care services.

[Nicole Rauzon-Wright]

The Franco Health Network of Southern Ontario serves a vast territory extending from Penetanguishene in the north to Welland in the south, and from Peterborough in the east to Windsor in the west. The politicians around this table could never do any door-to-door campaigning because this is a vast territory.

Southern Ontario is a region of contrasts, marked by diversity and urbanization. A majority of the francophones belonging to a racial minority are found in Southern Ontario's major urban centres. The approximately 175,000 francophones in Southern Ontario are spread over 27 census divisions and form part of a total regional population of over 9 million.

Besides being in the minority in the province, we are also a minority within the smaller areas, that is, all the municipalities and all the counties. Although this francophone population constitutes the second largest concentration of francophones in the province—31.9% of the provincial total in Southern Ontario—it makes up only 1.9% of the total population of Southern Ontario.

This is what is happening in our region: there's absolutely no respect for the official language, that is French. We're constantly being compared to racial minorities, because they tend to be involved in a particular sector. For example, in the York region, we've been told that we are not a priority because it's much more important to focus on the Chinese population or the Italian population. The principle of the official languages is applied to newcomers to this country and yet there is no acknowledgement of French as an official language and the rights of francophones to demand services in French, especially health services.

[Jean-Marc Boisvenue]

These were the primary components of the work plan for Setting the Stage: a concerted action by the four Ontario networks; collaboration with government authorities; and collaboration with other provincial agencies.

It came as no surprise, in French please, that the two main conclusions of STS, Setting the Stage project, are that Southern Ontario is almost completely lacking in French-language health services and that francophones in the south wish to be served in their own language. Southern Ontario has only two francophone community health centres and six other health agencies that are fully or partially designated under the French Languages Services Act.

This is what people are experiencing. Seniors go to hospitals to obtain services. They have medical problems and they speak English with difficulty, but there is nobody there to speak to them in their language and thus avoid the potential for wrong diagnoses.

Take, for example, Jean-Marc Boisvenue, in Eastern Ontario, who is accustomed to having a family physician speak to him in French, as well as to his family. When he moves to London he has a hard time finding a physician. He therefore goes to a clinic where anyone can go, and takes a number. He speaks to a physician who tells me, because he works in the area of health research, that he does not understand why francophones wish to have services in French when they can speak English. We're not talking about 1950; we're talking about May, 2006.

Today, we want you to understand this above all: contexts vary. As the president stated, Southern Ontario is not Eastern Ontario, nor is it Northern Ontario. Even in New Brunswick, the context is not the same because of the potential critical mass of francophone communities. It is therefore important to emphasize the word context. There is a notorious lack of availability of French-language primary health services throughout Southern Ontario.

Finally, we drafted recommendations under our study. The recommendations of the Franco Health Network of Southern Ontario addressed the four strategic priorities identified at the provincial level, namely access points, human resources, training and prevention, and the planning and management of services. These priorities are keys to the development and implementation in Ontario of quality primary health care in French.

[Nicole Rauzon-Wright]

I would now like to talk to you about health promotion and diseases prevention.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

You have one minute left.

[Nicole Rauzon-Wright]

Perfect.

We want health promotion and disease prevention to be the cornerstones of the francophone effort to take responsibility for their health, and that these approaches be based on a holistic vision of health and emphasis on health determinants, while also taken vulnerable groups into account.

Allow me to give you an example. Public health representatives, whose mandate is health promotion and disease prevention, are going to our francophones schools to talk about promotion and prevention in English only. On the other hand, other francophone representatives are going to English schools and talk about promotion and prevention in English.

This makes no sense. The resources are not being used effectively to provide quality health services in French. I think this is because there is no acknowledgement of the obligation to provide health services in French to francophones in Ontario.

In conclusion, I would like to talk to you about planning and management within the network. We offered our services to the province in order to be able to act as agents for the LHINs, the local health integration networks, that conduct planning activities and health promotion. It is therefore important to have a support agreement with the federal government.

Thank you very much.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

Mr. Laliberté, you have the floor.

[David Laliberté, President, Centre francophone de Toronto]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Could you please introduce your organization, for the record.

[David Laliberté]

I am the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Centre francophone de Toronto. My colleague, Mr. Jean-Gilles Pelletier, is the Executive Director. Our presentation will be brief.

For approximately 30 years, the Centre francophone de Toronto has been offering a broad range of services to Franco-Torontonians: clinical health, mental health, health promotion, settlement services and employment services for newcomers, legal aid services, early childhood centres and cultural services. Our centre is a type of gateway for the Franco-Torontonians Community.

We will attempt to give you a overview not of the francophone community in Ontario, which is much larger, but rather of the Franco-Torontonians Community specifically.

Our clientele has evolved considerably over the past few years. It is now mainly made of newcomers from countries such as the Congo, Tunisia and others. Therefore, the centre's clientele is mainly made up of newcomers living in urban areas.

This change of our clientele has changed our centre. It is important to remember that the Franco-Torontonian community differs from other communities that you met in Moncton, St. John's and elsewhere.

I believe that you have a copy of the document we submitted in French and English. We would like to be constructive and to give you concrete recommendations. That is why this document contents specific recommendations for the federal government, that focus increasing our partnerships with the various federal departments, such as Services Canada, Citizenship and Immigration, Heritage Canada, to name only a few.

Page 2 of our document lays out some principles that reflect the Official Language Action Plan and that the federal government should taken into account when it implements its own plan.

First, it is essential that services be set up in multi-disciplinary centres. I referred earlier to the concept of gateway or single window. This concept is very important in a city like Toronto, where the francophone community is spread over a rather vast territory where there is no francophone neighbourhood.

Services must be delivered by cohesive teams that have a critical mass of francophone stakeholders. The organizations must be well networked in the communities they serve and be linked to all the other smaller community organizations working in Toronto, so that they meet the needs of the community adequately. These organizations should be community governed, which is the case for the Centre francophone de Toronto. Our board of directors is a reflection of the francophone-Torontonian community.

I will now give the floor to my colleague, Jean-Gilles, who will speak to various issues in the health sector.

[Jean-Gilles Pelletier, Executive Director, Centre francophone de Toronto]

David mentioned that the Community Health Centre is a multi-service centre and, in that respect, we truly are at the very core of primary health care services in Toronto. We offer a variety of services in this area and in French only.

We therefore have physicians, nurses, dieticians, social workers, mental health workers, etc. We have observed lately that Health Canada's recently funded regional French language health networks, through the Société Santé en français, are facing serious challenges in terms of their funding and their effectiveness. What Nicole and Jean-Marc had to say earlier is quite relevant, given that the Réseau franco-santé du sud de l'Ontario covers an enormous territory. This complicates matters when one wants to develop priorities at a local level because decisions will soon be made, in Ontario, by the LHINs, the Local Health Integration Networks, which make up the regional decision tables.

This lack of resources spread over a very vast territory presents serious challenges for implementing health language services in French. We would like the government to focus on this issue.

[David Laliberté]

Our brief outlines some of the legal issues. I will simply mention the Court Challenges Program which I am sure you are familiar with. This is an issue that the Centre francophone de Toronto is very concerned about. We have a legal aid clinic that attempts to represent the interests of the franco-Torontonian community. This community needs this program. Therefore, we are calling on the federal government to reconsider its decision to end its funding.

There is another important issue. As I mentioned, our clientele is mainly made up of immigrants. Our legal aid clinic offers services related to immigration and refugee status. We have noted a significant deterioration in the French language services provided by the Immigration and Refugee Board in Toronto. The Board has increasingly been referring those francophone clients who wish to obtain refugee status, to its Montreal office. Therefore, these individuals now have to attend their hearings via video-conferences.

We recently made an access to information request in order to determine how many members of the francophone community were being referred to the Board's Montreal office, compared to the anglophone community and we noted a huge discrepancy. We believe that this seriously harms the refugee status claims process. Therefore, we are asking the federal government to consider this situation, with a view to restricting the amount of video-conferencing imposed on these very vulnerable people in Canada. It is also our intention to lay a complaint with the Official Languages Commission over the next few days. I simply wanted to mention this to you.

[Jean-Gilles Pelletier]

I would like to now address some priority issues related to the federal government's funding mechanisms as they relate to settlement and employment support services.

As you know, these agreements are entered into on an annual basis between the federal government, the departments and the agencies. Contrary to the agreements that the centre has reached with other funding services, more specifically at the provincial level, the funding agreements with the federal government are not true accountability agreements because the federal government's commitment is only that of contributor. They do not give the agencies a clear mandate to provide a service on behalf of the federal government. This raises significant legal issue for the members of the boards of directors.

Second, the process for transferring federal funds to community agencies is very costly because it involves contributions and funding transfers optional on reimbursement. The provincial government, on the other hand, simply uses an allocation method and conducts an annual audit. The problems we are describing to you may be rather practical type problems but they make the life of organizations in francophone minority communities very difficult. These funding agreements are very cumbersome to manage and the same types of complaints have been expressed by many other groups.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

You can tell us more during the question and answer period.

We will now move on to the Fédération des aînés et des retraités francophones de l'Ontario. Ms. Jomphe-LeClaire, you have the floor.

[Marcelle Jomphe-LeClaire, Fédération des aînés et des retraités francophones de l'Ontario]

Good morning.

My name is Marcelle Jomphe-LeClaire and for the past three years I have been the President for the South-Western region of the Fédération des aînés et des retraités francophones de l'Ontario. I am also the Secretary and Treasurer of the provincial board. My region extends from Oshawa to Windsor, and to Penetanguishene in the north.

At the provincial level, we are involved in projects involving strategies and partnerships. Member clubs are grouped in five major regions. In the east, it is the region of Ottawa, that is, the south-central and south-western areas. It is easy to become confused, but schools fall under the south-central area, whereas we are in the south-western part. We also have the central-northern and the upper-northern regions.

The federation supports coordination and training, and is involved in regional projects. It has 90 local clubs which represent approximately 8,000 members. FAFO encourages clubs to diversify their membership and to give them the opportunity to develop as people, but also to provide information in every sector to ensure their protection and that of the most disadvantaged.

This is the mandate of the federation: to acknowledge, promote and defend the rights of francophone seniors and retirees; to bring together people over the age of 50 so they can become more socially involved together; to identify the needs of seniors and retirees and to help them find the services they need so that governments, associations and private organizations can better target their services to this clientele. We need to provide communication, information, awareness and training services to our members in order to foster volunteering and openness towards others by creating alliances and partnerships.

Today, health care, justice, the fight against violence, a sense of belonging, committed volunteerism, employment retention, social commitment, communication and the dissemination of information are the organization's main concerns.

Since becoming a member of FAFO, I have realized that francophones, especially seniors, don't have it easy in Ontario. They have a lot of problems and must meet many challenges. Something a friend of mine said several years ago has stayed with me. This friend had moved to Oshawa, far away from her family. When she went to the hospital to give birth to her child, she did not understand English. The doctors and nurses were talking to her, but she did not understand. It was then, she told me, that it was not easy giving birth in English.

Some of our groups have been in this area for nearly 60 years. We celebrated the 50^th anniversary of our club and the 40^th anniversary of the parish. So we are dealing with many groups who have been around for a fairly long time. For those people who got together or who tried to learn English, things are going fairly well, but it really is difficult for those who cannot speak English. The health of seniors is in jeopardy when there are no services in French. One of the reasons or excuses we hear—it doesn't matter how you define it—is that we are located close to Toronto. It seems that many services are available in Toronto. But in our region, there are practically none.

I retired four years ago, and since then, I have tried to make progress in this field. I participated in information days for seniors living in Oshawa. Everything was done in French, which was greatly appreciated. But I think that there really is a lack of French services. We organize meetings precisely on health care services. We would really like to have some place where our members could go to be cared for in their own language, but that's difficult.

A person who has reached a certain age and who receives a medical prescription, and who is told by the doctor to take these pills twice a day does not always remember what instructions were given. This person might then take the medication three times a day or only once. This endangers people's health, and it's not a new phenomenon. The situation must be addressed. In Oshawa, I really feel that our municipal counsellors—in fact, we are in election mode—and members of Parliament want to help. These people truly want to discuss these matters with us to find a solution.

However, one problem remains. People still believe that francophones represent an ethnic group, as someone mentioned a little earlier.

Last year, I sat on a city hall committee. We were dealing with the WinterLights Celebrations. It involves people visiting various Canadian cities, and the one with the best Christmas decorations is chosen as the winner. Last year, Saint John, New Brunswick, won. At a meeting of this committee, I was asked how we celebrate Christmas, that is, francophones, as an ethnic group, at the Amicale du Centre Communautaire Francophone de la Région de Durham, in Oshawa.

City hall representatives should be more in touch with our reality. I told that we do not form an ethnic group. Canada has two official languages: French and English. The people around me were stunned.

A lot of work still has to be done to raise awareness, and we absolutely have to make sure that francophones have access to services in French if they want to live their lives fully.

I was born in Quebec but raised in Ontario. I learned English in school. This may have made life easier for me, because if I go some place where no one speaks French, I can easily express myself in English. However, it's not the same situation for other people. When I go to Montreal or some place where most people speak French, I feel at home, I feel I am in my element. I think that we need this. There's no doubt that francophones need to have access to services in French to live their lives fully.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

We will begin with the official opposition.

Mr. Jean-Claude D'Amours, you have five minutes.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to thank you all for being here this morning. It's very important that we travel across Canada to give you the opportunity to express yourselves.

I represent a riding in northern New Brunswick. The reality is a little different there because our province is officially bilingual, but it seems that the realities of day-to-day life are similar.

Ms. Jomphe-LeClaire, I just want to say something as an aside. I hope that you were not told in New Brunswick that you represent an ethnic group.

[Marcelle Jomphe-LeClaire]

No, that was in Oshawa.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

That reassures me. I would have been in utter despair if that had happened in New Brunswick.

I have a question for each of you. I know that my government colleagues, the Conservatives, do not like to hear people still talk about the elimination of the Court Challenges Program. They made this very clear at our most recent meetings. They can't stand hearing francophone communities talk about that any more.

You may have turned to the Court Challenges Program in the past. If so, in what circumstances? It might be interesting to find out. The committee in charge of defending the Montfort Hospital used the program. The hospital is truly a torch bearer for the francophonie. Given the fact that the Court Challenges Program is no more, how will this affect your organizations and your communities? Will it be possible to ensure that services will still be available in French outside Quebec?

We share the same goal. If we want to continue to live in French and to make sure that our children and grandchildren continue to receive services in French, and to speak the language, we need to provide them with the tools to do this. Indeed, communities are not wealthy enough to defend themselves; they need help.

I would therefore like to know whether any of you have used this program in the past, and if so, in what circumstances. Further, does the elimination of this program threaten the French language in your various areas?

[David Laliberté]

I will give you the point of view of the Centre francophone de Toronto. Our legal clinic has been in operation for about three years. That's fairly recent. To my knowledge, in our short life we have not had to use the Court Challenges Program.

However, it is very easy to imagine situations in which we might need the program, given the fact that we have a legal aid clinic. These are simply theoretical examples, not facts. For instance, a new entrant to Canada, say a francophone from Africa or from any other place in the world where French is spoken, might feel he has been discriminated against within the process to determine whether or not he is a refugee. This person could turn to us and ask us to launch a legal challenge under section 15 of the Constitution or under any other provision of the Charter. In that type of situation, we would probably need to turn to the Court Challenges Program, if it still existed.

It probably won't, but if it did, we could easily turn to it in that type of situation.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Could you otherwise not launch a challenge?

[David Laliberté]

Yes, probably, for the simple reason that our legal aid clinic is funded by Legal Aid Ontario, which provides funding for specific cases.

Often constitutional challenges under the Charter have broader implications for society in general and not just on one individual in particular. It is therefore difficult to obtain funding for legal procedures.

There's no doubt that a program like the CCP could be very useful.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to respond?