LANG Committee Report

CHAPTER 1: THE CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL BASES OF HEALTH CARE IN
BOTH OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

RECOMMENDATION 1

The Committee calls on the Commissioner of Official Languages to investigate whether the Government of Canada is complying with the Official Languages Act when it is required to provide care directly to certain groups or communities or, again, whether it ensures its obligations are met when it transfers its responsibilities to third parties. We ask the Commissioner to report to the Committee following her investigation.

RECOMMENDATION 2

The Committees calls on the Commissioner of Official Languages to organize a national forum at which legal experts will publicly examine the best options for consolidating the legal bases of health services for linguistic minorities, including the possibility of adding a sixth principle, on linguistic duality, to the Canada Health Act. We request the Commissioner report to the Committee when she has completed her work.

CHAPTER 2: ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE IN BOTH OFFICIAL LANGUAGES:
CURRENT INITIATIVES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

RECOMMENDATION 3

The Committee recommends the Government of Canada ensure that the funds it allocates to the linguistic minorities for primary care by the PHCTF are guaranteed at least until 2008 and permanently thereafter.

RECOMMENDATION 4

The Committee recommends to Health Canada that it submit an annual report on funds granted to minority language communities under the PHCTF so that Parliament and the players concerned may know precisely the level of performance and the amounts spent. The report should also provide a breakdown of the funds accorded by Health Canada for other levers of intervention proposed by the CCFSMC and the CCASMC.

RECOMMENDATION 5

The Committee calls on the CNFS to develop performance indicators on the retention of health professionals in home community and to inform the Committee of those indicators.

RECOMMENDATION 6

The Committee recommends that the SSHRC pay particular attention, especially over the next five years, to research projects on health issues specific to the official language minority communities.

RECOMMENDATION 7

The Committee calls on the SSHRC to conduct renewed promotion of its programs to researchers in the official language minority communities.

RECOMMENDATION 8

The Committee calls on the CIHR to appoint a new official languages champion as soon as possible and to inform the Appointments Committee.

RECOMMENDATION 9

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada add the CIHR to the list of federal institutions designated within the accountability framework adopted in August 1994 to ensure the implementation of sections 41 and 42 of Part VII of the Official Languages Act.

RECOMMENDATION 10

The Committee recommends that a fourteenth institute be created at the CIHR to explore all issues of health care related to official language minority communities.

CHAPTER 3: INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION MECHANISMS IN THE
HEALTH FIELD

RECOMMENDATION 11

The Committee calls on the Government of Canada to have one of the future federal-provincial-territorial conferences of health ministers focus primarily on the question of health care for linguistic minorities.

RECOMMENDATION 12

The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada create an intergovernmental cooperation program in the health field, a program to be managed by Health Canada which will provide financial support to the provincial and territorial governments in providing health care for the linguistic minorities. That program should be based on the following principles: respect for the provinces’ areas of jurisdiction, equal partnership, participation of the community health networks and accountability.

RECOMMENDATION 13

In the light of the prime ministers’ 2003 Health Care Renewal Accord, in which a fund of $16 billion was set up to support reform to health care and in which front-line health care, home care and the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs were targeted specifically, the Committee recommends that the Government of Canada target as well health care in minority language communities in the current agreement and in future ones.

RECOMMENDATION 14

The Committee recommends the Government of Canada ensure the official language minority communities are represented on the Health Council.