Official Languages committee  I think it is very important for francophones, whether they live in Ontario or in New Brunswick, to be able to speak their language when they are ill. That is what they want, but in many cases, if they are offered service in English rather than French, they immediately go along with this.

Official Languages committee  There is a network. As I mentioned earlier, the Société Santé en français has networks throughout each of the provinces. In Ontario, there are four, and in New Brunswick there is one. The networks in New Brunswick have also introduced projects such as the one Mr. Laflamme was speaking about in their municipalities and regions, in order to introduce certain programs.

Official Languages committee  Yes. The networks communicate through conference calls. In addition, all the networks take part in the annual general meeting of the Société Santé en français.

Official Languages committee  The network respects the national principles of health care, which do not include privatization. We do have a government that agrees with a certain type of privatization. For example, there are negotiations regarding the management of our infrastructure. That was suggested in the case of the Royal Ottawa Hospital, the mental health facility in Ottawa.

Official Languages committee  Since our main role under the legislation was to designate organizations that would offer service in French, we therefore evaluated the CASC of Eastern Ontario in Cornwall, which serves Casselman, Hawkesbury, Alexandria and Winchester, and we worked with these bodies. Any organization that wants to obtain a designation sends us a plan.

Official Languages committee  I will try to answer that question. I'm a health care professional. That is the other hat I wear. In fact, I run a mental health clinic. In my opinion, the fact that we are located close to Quebec has been an advantage in the past, because health care professionals in Ontario were better paid than those in the Outaouais, for example.

Official Languages committee  With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to say this. I think the two official languages of Canada are important, and not just in health, but also in education. I am a firm believer, a native-born Franco-Ontarian and I believe it's very important.

Official Languages committee  The single-window is very new, very recent. It was a project of the network in cooperation with community health organizations in Renfrew. Renfrew was part of the region that our network serves, and it was quite difficult, because the French-speaking population of Renfrew is not very big.

Official Languages committee  The answer is yes.

Official Languages committee  The Montfort decision was definitely very important in terms of the availability and continuation of health care in French for Franco-Ontarians. There is no doubt about that. I think the Montfort support group was fighting not just for Franco-Ontarians, but for all francophones in Canada.

Official Languages committee  A number of projects have been submitted to the Société Santé en français. The network chose 23 of them, including Mr. Laflamme's. I will let him tell you about that after. But I think that the Société Santé en français has solicited submissions all across Canada, through its 13 networks, in order to come up with primary health care projects, projects in the field, to improve the health of francophones in their region.

Official Languages committee  I will begin. What you say is true. The Montfort case went a long way to protect French-language health services in Ontario. It is because of the four networks that we now have in Ontario, following the ruling in favour of Montfort Hospital that we now have legislation to create a new health care structure in Ontario, with a preamble dealing with services provided to francophones in all Ontario communities.

Official Languages committee  The networks and the Société Santé en français do, of course, discuss possibilities, especially with telemedicine and all of the distance care that is created. As Ms. Bouchard indicated, we also promote exchanges so that research is done in this area. Research projects are currently under way in Alberta, Manitoba, and New Brunswick to explore possibilities for distance education.

Official Languages committee  The organizations in the network use French.

Official Languages committee  The network itself, for which I chair the board of directors, includes all francophone organizations from several districts in Eastern Ontario, where 226,000 francophones live. The network is primarily responsible for planning and needs assessment. It is made up of 66 organizations.