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Quebec’s National Assembly has unanimously adopted a motion saying that English-speaking Quebecers don’t have to get a certificate proving that they’re entitled to English-language education in order to receive health care and social services in their language.
The motion, introduced Thursday morning by Liberal MNA André Fortin, also calls on the government to ensure that all directives to the health-care system “are clear and explicit on this subject.”
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Gregory Kelley, the Liberal critic for relations with English-speaking Quebecers, said the motion is in response to fear and confusion caused by a July government directive that said only those who have a government certificate attesting to their right to English-language education in Quebec, or those who are grandfathered in, would be entitled to communicate “exclusively” in English with the province’s health-care system.
French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge has repeatedly said that people will not have to show certificates to obtain health care in English and the certificate requirement only applies to administrative communications. He has promised to update the directive, but the existing version remains in force.
“Today we didn’t want just words from the minister,” Kelley said. “We wanted to adopt a motion expressing the will of the National Assembly that that is the case: you do not need a certificate when you walk into a hospital to get service in the English language, and nobody should be worried about that.”
Roberge said in mid-August, after meeting with some anglophone community groups, that a new version of the directive would be issued, but Kelley said that still hasn’t happened.
“One of the reasons why we put this motion forward is that I’ve been waiting, we’ve all been waiting, what’s taking so long?” Kelley said. “It never should have happened in the first place and now it’s time for the government to act.”
The motion, which was introduced with the support of Vincent Marissal, the Québec solidaire MNA for Rosemont, and Marie-Claude Nichols, who represents Vaudreuil as an independent, passed 105 to zero, with no abstentions.
Kelley said it was reassuring that Roberge and the CAQ voted in favour of the motion and that a copy of the motion has been sent to regional health authorities across the province.
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