Each province organizes its health care system differently. I think that the funding plan that was set up for all the networks across the country perhaps did not take into account the fact that things work differently in different regions.
In Alberta, the health department has delegated many responsibilities to the regional health authorities. The province is broken up into many smaller jurisdictions, and our francophone communities are scattered among all the regional health authorities. When we go to see the health department, to meet the minister, the deputy minister or officials in Edmonton, they tell us that our action plan is very interesting, but that the decision is not up to them. So we have to meet with each regional health authority in the province, since they are the entities we need to work with.
Our team consists of one person, and there are many people to meet with. Obviously, repeating the same message nine times to people who do not know us very well is quite difficult. It is relatively easy to deal with people in Edmonton who are more exposed to the realities of Canada, but it is something else to meet with people in Fort McMurray or southern Alberta. It constitutes a major obstacle for us in carrying out our work on an ongoing basis.