Long Awaited Regulation Creating Provincial Access Committee a First Step in the Right Direction
Montreal – April 9, 2018 – In 1986 the right of English-speaking Quebecers to receive Health and Social Services was recognized in law by the government of Quebec. This right has been consistently respected by all governments of Quebec since that time.
In 2015, Bill 10 was enacted. It radically restructured the health and social services system. This necessitated revisiting mechanisms for ensuring access to health and social services in this new institutional environment. That included the regulation governing the Provincial Advisory Committee on the dispensing of health and social services in the English language.
Over the past three years, the Quebec Community Groups Network, in partnership with the Community Health and Social Services Network (CHSSN), worked with Health Minister Gaétan Barrette and the government of Quebec to revise and update the regulation governing the advisory committee which is mandated it to advise the Minister of Health on the accessibility and quality of health and social services for English-speaking Quebecers.
“The QCGN today welcomes and expresses our support for the amended regulation adopted by Cabinet,” said Eric Maldoff, who heads the QCGN’s Health and Social Services Committee. The revamped regulation ensures that new members of the provincial access committee will be more representative of Quebec’s English-speaking community, said Maldoff. It also confers responsibility on the QCGN and the CHSSN for recruiting and proposing committee members to the Minister of Health.
