In terms of concrete results, I would like to come back to the initiative entitled Setting the Stage. This is a planning project with a limited budget and timeframe. Its purpose is to review the situation in the region to identify critical needs and find solutions that effectively improve the health services offer in French. As that and the reforms are going forward, new provincial organizations which are now officially recognized, having been created and institutionalized by the province, will also be involved in planning.
I'm talking about the four Ontario networks, and particularly those in northern and northeastern Ontario — in other words, my own region and the region for which Mr. Bénard — who, I neglected to mention initially, was unable to be here this morning — has responsibility. So, we immediately made contact and developed a relationship with the provincial entity — the LHIN — based not far from here in North Bay.
As soon as they came on stream — I just want to clarify for the lady from Quebec that LHINs are sort of the equivalent of regional health boards in Quebec — we began to work together. There is obviously a lot of preparatory work to be done. Over the last two years, there has been lobbying, I guess you could call it, supported by the networks, in order to ensure that services in French would be included in system reforms. Almost 25% of the population in our area is Francophone. Because of the pressure we have brought to bear and our determination, our message has been well received and we have begun to work with LHINs.
For the time being, this institution is officially responsible for planning for the entire health care system. I'm going to go out on a limb here. They have been in place for almost a year and a half and are about to table a report which is also an official plan for the province — the Health System Integration Plan for the Region. It reflects regional health system planning — in other words, who should be doing what, and so on.
We have held consultations and worked for a number of months on developing that plan. I would say that together, we did a reasonable job, and that there was openness and good will on both sides. Without saying too much, since I don't want to give the show away, I would say that overall, just about everything that was in Setting the Stage is now reflected in the integration plan.
I just want to add that in Ontario, the French Language Services Act is not strict enough and has some weaknesses. This legislation is intended to ensure services are provided in French, but if they are not provided, there are no sanctions. So, this plan includes ways of giving the legislation a little more teeth and correcting those weaknesses. So, it will have a quick, and direct impact.