Official Languages committee  In health, despite the challenges, people are definitely much more accepting and find it more normal that health services are delivered in French. I'd even go so far as to say that the community's expectations exceed our ability to meet them. That may be caused by a lack of a labour force or by a labour force that's poorly distributed over the positions where it's required.

Official Languages committee  Yes. First, at Hôpital général Saint-Boniface, where there is a language bank, they do simultaneous translation in some 60 languages in one year. That's somewhat a reflection of the nature of Winnipeg. However, we note that, with heightened immigration, a lot of old stock Franco-Manitobans are functionally very bilingual.

Official Languages committee  That field isn't part of my expertise, but the Société franco-manitobaine and the Province of Manitoba have signed partnership agreements to take in Francophones. I don't know whether anyone's a little more familiar with the question. Daniel Boucher could definitely tell you more about that.

Official Languages committee  If there's one way to integrate Francophone newcomers to Manitoba, it's definitely in the healthy field. In the institutions where I work, a large segment of the labour force consists of newcomers who speak French, which francizes our community and adds a somewhat distinctive feel.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Simard. The project you refer to, the one in Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, is a good example of a federal contribution that snowballed. Not only did it make it possible to develop a project, but it also received significant support from the province—because health is nevertheless a provincial jurisdiction—which led the community to make a fairly large investment in it.

Official Languages committee  That's a tough question because, in one sense, that means making a certain choice among services, which are all... I'm thinking of the demand for resources, and when you talk about French-language services...

Official Languages committee  There's no doubt in our mind that, if there were two basic pillars, the first would be manpower training. First of all, if there isn't any labour force capable of working in French, or both languages, that's ready to serve Francophone communities, that makes no sense. The other important pillar is primary health care services.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Godin. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Chair, committee members. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us this evening so that we can tell you a little about the Conseil communauté en santé and about certain recent initiatives taken in Manitoba with the support of the Société Santé en français, which is located in Ottawa, and Health Canada.