Official Languages committee  Professional medical training is offered in French in Francophone universities. However, I was referring to research where the material used is essentially scientific articles. Unfortunately—and this is absolutely universal—research is conducted in English, particularly medical and health-related research, with some variations, depending on the field of study.

Official Languages committee  We work in the health care field. I believe that answer should come from people who work in the social sciences and humanities.

Official Languages committee  Yes, that is a very major challenge. As Dr. Fortier pointed out, the language of research, generally speaking, and certainly in the health care field, is English. The fact is that there are a lot of publications and volumes written in English for which there is not necessarily a translation available, given the costs associated with that.

Official Languages committee  It would be very difficult for me to give you an answer based on evidence. We are conducting these studies precisely to obtain answers to those questions and determine the root causes of this problem.

Official Languages committee  Last week, a research symposium was held at McGill University dealing specifically with that kind of question. There was discussion of minority Anglophone populations in the hospital environment.

Official Languages committee  I am going to ask Ms. Lapointe to answer that question.

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely.

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely.

Official Languages committee  The projects relate specifically to that kind of situation, in other words the impact on access to health care services among people whose official language has minority status in their environment.

Official Languages committee  That is the very reason why we launched this initiative. We want to be able to measure the extent of the problem, on the one hand, and, going one step further, to assess the impact this has on the quality of health care provided to people who form a minority in their community.

Official Languages committee  Yes, indeed. As I was saying, we are conducting studies in a context where population groups are vulnerable, partly because they form a minority. The idea is to determine the extent of the problem, but also to see what solutions can be found.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research are pleased to have this opportunity to talk to you today about the steps that have been taken with respect to the promotion of Canada's official languages. Ms. Johanne Lapointe, who is responsible for the Official Language Minority Communities Research Initiative is with me today.