Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

Advocates for health-care access in English are alarmed by a proposed amendment to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government’s health-care reform bill, Bill 15, that would give Santé Québec, the Crown corporation created to manage the health system, the power to remove bilingual status from health-care institutions.

Health Minister Christian Dubé tabled Amendment 111.1 before the health and social services committee of the National Assembly on Nov. 28. It would give the Santé Québec board the power to revoke bilingual status from health facilities which provide less than 50 per cent of their services in English. The board would be able to request withdrawal of a facility’s status after consulting with the provincial and regional health-care access committees and the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).

Dubé tabled four language-related “transitional” amendments before the committee, including one that would ensure institutions with bilingual status are recognized as such by Santé Québec, another to prolong the validity of existing regional health-care access plans for anglophones until Santé Québec approves new ones and a third to authorize Santé Québec to communicate with recognized bilingual institutions in English.

The fourth, Amendment 111.1, would create “a process of removal of status” for health facilities that want to remove their own bilingual status obligations, Dubé told committee members.

Liberal health critic André Fortin raised concerns about the amendment. He wondered aloud how the 50 per cent threshold would be determined, for which Dubé and the civil servants testifying alongside him, lawyer Mathieu Paquin and associate deputy minister Daniel Desharnais, provided no immediate specific answer. Fortin also mentioned that bilingual municipalities where the English-speaking population had fallen below 50 per cent had the opportunity under Bill 96 to vote to keep their bilingual status – an opportunity that doesn’t appear to be available to bilingual health facilities under the proposed law. Fortin called on Dubé to create a mechanism where communities could refuse the removal of bilingual status from “their” health facility.

Debate on the amendment was ultimately suspended to give ministry officials more time to consult with the OQLF and outside experts. He has since said he is open to withdrawing the amendment if it undermines the government’s commitment to maintain access to health care in English.

“I do want to reassure the people watching that there won’t be any change [to access to services in English],” Dubé said during the committee hearing, which was livestreamed.

Antoine De La Durantaye, a spokesperson for Dubé, maintained that Bill 15 “would have no impact on access to care for English-speaking people. Everything is maintained – access plans and access to interpreters. There will be no change in services offered to anglophones or in the status of their hospitals.”

Despite those reassurances, the proposed amendment caused alarm in the English- speaking community. “I’m not sure where this is going to go, but we are very concerned about it,” said Richard Walling, president of the Jeffery Hale – Saint Brigid’s advisory committee.

Jeffery Hale – Saint Brigid’s is the only designated bilingual health institution in the Quebec City area. Walling said “maybe 10 or 20 per cent” of the combined clientele of Jeffery Hale Hospital and Saint Brigid’s Home is anglophone, and the hospital’s minor emergency clinic and CLSC serve thousands of people from the surrounding neighbourhoods – mainly francophones. “It all depends on how [the proportion of anglophones] will be applied and assessed. If they count everyone who comes into the minor emergency clinic and CLSC, I have no idea how they’ll check that.” Walling said he would be watching future developments “as closely as possible.”

For Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) president Eva Ludvig, the debate around Amendment 111.1 reflects wider problems with Bill 15, which Dubé has said he hopes to adopt before Christmas. “Its flaws are numerous and its implications far-reaching; the government appears to be still making it up as it goes along,” she said in a statement. “This is part of a very nasty pattern with the CAQ: it seems the only way they feel they can protect and promote French is to restrict or deny the rights and access to services of the English-speak- ing community here – even when those minority-language rights are guaranteed by law.” A QCGN petition against Bill 15, available on the National Assembly website, has gathered over 6,400 signatures.