Educational institutions in Quebec are also playing a key role in implementing the road map measures. The McGill University training and retention of health professionals project, through an implementation agreement with the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services, is working to improve the capacity of the health and social services network to meet the needs of English-speaking individuals.
One key measure is the language training program, with a major emphasis on supporting English courses for French-speaking personnel in the public system who are working directly with the population. These are professionals who wish, desire, voluntarily, to improve their English language skills.
In the first three years of the road map investment, well over 3,000 French-speaking professionals participated in the language training program. This result builds on the 5,000 French-speaking professionals who completed language training through the first federal action plan.
In the next few weeks, the Quebec Community Groups Network, QCGN, will submit the health and social service priorities of English-speaking Quebeckers for 2013-2018 to Health Canada. To ensure a timely review by this standing committee, the CHSSN, as the QCGN sector organization in health, is presenting four priorities for renewed federal investment. These priorities emerged from consultations with over 32 focus groups. They actually capture the voices of English-speaking Quebeckers who shared their experience of the health system and their priorities for the future.
We have a brief that goes into more detail.
The first priority is the adaptation of human resources in the Quebec health and social services system. Like all health systems, there is constant turnover of personnel, change, reorganization, and rationalization, so there's a constant need to have input to keep training courses for professionals.
Second, the organizations that deliver services have to adapt their programs to small populations. So we want more road map investments in the Quebec health system so that we can continue to develop programs that are specific to the needs of our communities.
The third priority has to do with information about services in English. Many times, English-speaking people have said that it's very difficult to get information on where services are.
Finally, involvement of the community is key. Community organizations are very efficient in the distribution of information on programs, diseases, and other issues facing the population. They're also the source of volunteers and other community resources that help institutions meet users' needs. Community organizations are instrumental in informing citizens in their efforts to participate in the governance structures of those institutions.
The Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services responded to a QCGN invitation to provide its opinion on the priorities proposed above. Recently, the minister wrote to the QCGN stating his support. He said, “We strongly recommend the renewal of the improvements to the official languages contribution program for health, sponsored by Health Canada”. This comes from the Quebec government.
To conclude, the road map investments have played a key role in enhancing the capacity of our communities to better care for seniors, to equip young people to become productive citizens, and to encourage informed, healthy communities.
We are strongly recommending, with the implementation agreements we've developed with the ministry, that the Government of Canada launch a new contribution program for 2013-2018 to respond to the health priorities of our official language minority communities, including the English-speaking community in Quebec.
Thank you.