Tag Archive for: Bill 10

Patients’ group at St. Mary’s kept in dark over English signs problem

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The patient-rights group at St. Mary’s Hospital was kept in the dark over how to resolve concerns about the erosion of English at the Côte-des-Neiges institution following Health Minister Gaétan Barrette’s sweeping reforms, the Montreal Gazette has learned.

Under Bill 10, St. Mary’s fell under the authority of a newly-formed umbrella organization in 2015. Soon after, the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal began replacing St. Mary’s signs on clinics that featured French and English lettering of equal size with signs that the users’ committee found to be confusing  — with the English in smaller, thinner typeface that is hard to read by many older patients.

The users’ group also raised concerns about the lack of bilingual letterhead on official St. Mary’s correspondence and anecdotes of English-speaking patients who received replies from the CIUSSS in French only.

The provincial Liberal government added an amendment to Bill 10 to address fears in the anglophone community that English might become less visible and spoken less often once their community hospitals were amalgamated under the umbrella organizations.

Bill 10 does contain a provision for an advisory committee to “preserve the cultural, historic, linguistic or local character” of an amalgamated institution like St. Mary’s. However, neither Barrette’s health ministry nor the CIUSSS board of directors informed the patient-rights group about the existence of such a committee or how to go about fixing the signs problem.

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Long Awaited Regulation Creating Provincial Access Committee a First Step in the Right Direction

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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.

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Allison Hanes: Promises to anglos must be realized before election

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“The next Quebec election is still eight months away, but already it’s starting. The quadrennial flirtation between political parties and Quebec anglophones, that most awkward and unfulfilling of courtships, is upon us again.”

Montreal Gazette columnist Allison Hanes is asking Quebec’s political parties to do better if they hope to gain the vote of English-speaking Quebecers. Notably, Hanes presents Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault promises at a radio interview to CJAD’s Leslie Roberts as disconnected and the Quebec Liberals’ past actions on Bill 10, school boards reform and Bill 62 as far from heartfelt for the English-speaking community.

Hanes refers to an editorial board meeting with the Quebec Community Groups Network where the organization suggested the new Secretariat must be enshrined in law by the National Assembly. The QCGN said the secretariat is key to ensuring community interests are considered, especially by people in the civil service who draft policy and design programs.

Read the article in the Montreal Gazette

Faut pas croire tout ce qu’on dit – Interview with Sylvia Martin-Laforge

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“Si on veut avoir des services en anglais, il faut faire attention.”

On Saturday January 7, QCGN Director General Sylvia Martin-Laforge was among five speakers on the Radio-Canada radio show called “Faut pas croire tout ce qu’on dit” with host Michel Lacombe. This show adressed the results of a Canadian Heritage survey which was first commented by journalist Philippe Orfali in Le Devoir (click here for the article).

Listen to Sylvia Martin-Laforge’s interview:

Listen to the full show:

 

QCGN satisfied, but not happy with Bill 10 compromise

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By Gordon Lambie, The Record

The Quebec Community Groups Network is calling itself satisfied with the modifications to Bill 10, within the context that the majority Liberal government could pass its centralizing health care reform whether people like it or not.

While the QCGN maintains that the elimination of individual boards of directors in favour of regional boards is unnecessary given the reform’s stated objectives of improving access to health services through better vertical integration, enabling patients to move through the system more easily and reducing costs, the QCGN’s administrators now feel that the bill offers English-speaking Quebecers significant new opportunities for meaningful participation and influence over local institutions. Read more…

QCGN satisfied Bill 10 compromises will protect the rights of English-speaking communities

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Montreal – February 9, 2015 –  

After months of intense and delicate negotiations with Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette and his office, the community obtained some significant changes to Bill 10 that will preserve many of our institutions despite the loss of their individual board of directors. These changes to the government’s health reform legislation will ensure the participation and engagement of English-speaking Quebecers to ensure the health and social service network is responsive to the needs of our communities.

“When he tabled Bill 10 in September, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette stated that his goal was to streamline the health and social service network and to cut costs. While most in our community support these valid goals, we disagreed with the elimination of the boards of directors of our institutions,” said QCGN President Dan Lamoureux.

To read more…

Bill 10 becomes law by this weekend

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By Angelica Montgomorety, The Gazette

Anglophones have been eyeing bill 10 with caution ever since it was tabled in September.

The legislation will get rid of most local health administrations, including the ones traditionally run by and for members of the English-speaking community.

The bill has now been creeping through the typical steps toward becoming law for months.

Now, Liberals say the work is so painfully slow that they must now resort to an exceptional procedure, officially known as invoking closure, but more commonly called the “gag order.”

To read more…

 

Gaétan Barrette says he’s aware anglophone-rights groups fear loss of service, control over hospitals

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The Laval News

Quebec Health Minister promises solutions for anglophone community

Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette says he and his officials are working with anglophone groups to address the community’s concerns over his massive health reform. He says a solution is imminent to relieve their worries.

Since the day the Barrette introduced his overhaul of the health care system, anglophone-rights groups decried the lack of protection for English-speakers and their health institutions, including hospitals, in the bill.

To read more…

QCGN awaiting Bill 10 amendments with concern

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By Gordon Lambie, The Record

Sylvia Martin-Laforge, Director General of the Quebec Community Groups Network says that it remains to be seen whether or not the perceived crisis surrounding Bill 10’s treatment of the Anglophone community has passed.

The QCGN reacted with concern last week as the National Assembly’s Commission on Health and Social Services reconvened to continue a clause-by-clause review of the bill, stating that the amendments announced to date had not done enough to ensure the reform will allow anglophones to maintain an acceptable level of input and control over their institutions.

To read more…

QCGN worried Bill 10 amendments will not save our institutions

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Press release

While leaders in Quebec’s English-speaking community were cautiously optimistic in early December that amendments to Quebec’s health reform would allow the community to maintain an acceptable level of input and control over their institutions, that hope is fading as the Commission on Health and Social Services reconvenes today to continue the clause by clause review of Bill 10.

Despite the reassurances offered in early December by Health and Social Services Minister Gaétan Barrette, amendments tabled to date do not adequately ensure the protection of the English-speaking community’s hospitals, nursing homes and social service centres or preserve the community’s role in their governance.

To read more…