LANG Committee News Release
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Standing Committee on Official Languages |
HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES OTTAWA, CANADA K1A 0A6 |
Comité permanent des langues officielles |
For immediate release
NEWS RELEASE
The Standing Committee on Official Languages Tables a Report on Access to Health Care in Both Official Languages
Ottawa, October 31, 2003 - The Standing Committee on Official Languages of the House of Commons presented today its ninth report, entitled: Access to Health Care for the Official Language Minority Communities: Legal Bases, Current Initiatives and Future Prospects. The Report contains 14 recommendations on this issue.
The Committee began deliberations on this matter in May 2003 after the House of Commons referred to it the subject matter of Bill C-202, a legislative text intended to include the principle of linguistic duality in the Canada Health Act. The Ministers of Health and Intergovernmental Affairs also wrote to the Committee Members asking them to explore other ways to promote access to health care for official language minority communities.
The Committee decided to take a three-pronged approach with its study: the legal and constitutional bases for delivering health care in the language of the patient; current initiatives and future prospects; and, finally, mechanisms of intergovernmental cooperation in the field of health. Many interveners interested in this matter, from communities, government and the hospital sector alike, explained to the members of the Committee the progress that has been made and the challenges yet to be met in terms of access to health care in both official languages.
Of the Committee's 14 recommendation, here are five:
- create a program of intergovernmental cooperation in health care, drawn from current practices in education, that would provide financial support for provincial and territorial governments in the delivery of health care to official language communities;
- ensure sustainability in the funding accorded linguistic minorities under the Primary Health Care Transition Fund;
- call on the Commissioner of Official Languages to hold a national forum at which legal experts will examine the best options for consolidating the legal bases of health services for linguistic minorities;
- create a fourteenth Institute within the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, to explore issues of health care related to linguistic minorities; and
- make the issue of health care for linguistic minorities the primary focus of an upcoming federal-provincial-territorial conference of ministers of health.
The Standing Committee on Official Languages comprises 16 MPs from all of the political parties represented in the House of Commons. Its ninth report was adopted unanimously.
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