Obviously, communications are one major shortcoming. It is fundamental for community organizations to be able to work in partnership with effective health communications officers.
It is impossible for us to do our work, mainly in the area of fighting assimilation and preserving the identity of our youth, if they can't relate to the media, if we don't have our community newspapers and radio. In that case we face another battle, that we are losing against anglophone media.
The Dion plan set out broad outlines; it strengthened educational institutions, it worked on immigration and contributed to the creation of a northern health network. However, I agree with Mr. Potié that the Dion plan has had no effect on communities, on people working out in the field, in the regions.
I'll give you a concrete example. It has been 15 years now that we, in Timmins, have been working to establish a francophone community health centre. We almost succeeded 10 years ago, but for political reasons, another centre was granted the funding, even though our application was more solid and better structured. We do not control the vagary of politics and program management.
There is a network, but what tangible effect does it have on citizens living in Timmins, who have to receive part of their health care services in English because there is no francophone community health centre? In the field of health care, the Dion plan has had no tangible impact.