Government of Canada Invests $174.3 Million in Health Initiatives for French and English-Speaking Minority Communities

News Release
2009-184
November 13, 2009
For immediate release

Backgrounder on Health Initiatives for French and English-Speaking Minority Communities

Edmundston, New Brunswick - On behalf of the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, the Honourable Percy Mockler, Senator from New Brunswick, announced today an investment of $174.3 million that will help fund health initiatives across the country.

"The Government of Canada is committed to improving access to health services for our French and English-speaking minority communities," said Senator Mockler. "Today's funding announcement is a major step towards ensuring the one million Anglophones in Quebec and the one million Francophones outside of Quebec are able to obtain health services in the official language of their choice."

This funding will help increase the number of health care professionals who can serve French and English-speaking minority communities. The project will be achieved through the development and implementation of strategies aimed at training and recruiting students and professors in the health sector and by supporting research on the health of communities. The funding announced today will also assist health networking in all provinces and territories and help create community-based projects.

"The Government of Canada is committed to working with our partners to improve the health of official language minority communities across the country," said Minister Aglukkaq. "Investments in the retention, training and development of health professionals today are expected to show significant results in the future; I look forward to seeing these results in the months and years ahead."

Funding for these health initiatives is being provided through the Official Languages Health Contribution Program under the 2008-2013 Roadmap for Linguistic Duality. The Roadmap outlines three priority areas for official languages related to health: health networking, training and retention initiatives for health professionals and official languages health projects.

The Government of Canada will continue to work in collaboration with the provinces and territories and official language minority communities to further improve access to health services by training and retaining health care professionals, supporting community networks and new local projects.

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