Introduction
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In October 2003, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages presented its report entitled Access to Health Care for the Official Language Minority Communities: Legal Bases, Current Initiatives and Future Prospects. In this report, the Committee asked the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages to verify whether the Government of Canada is complying with the Official Languages Act when it provides care directly to certain groups or communities and whether it ensures that its obligations are met when it transfers its responsibilities to third parties. The Committee asked the Office of the Commissioner to report to it at the conclusion of the audit.
Objective
The objective is to verify whether official language minority clientele served by federal institutions have access to direct health care in the language of their choice. The clientele is described in the table below.
| Institutions audited 1 | Targeted clientele |
| Health Canada | Members of First Nations and Inuit communities |
| Veterans Affairs Canada | Veterans (and their close relatives, for the information that is provided to them) |
| Royal Canadian Mounted Police | Recruits (cadets) |
| Correctional Service Canada | Inmates |
Scope of Audit
This audit does not cover all health care services. It focuses on direct curative or preventive health care, such as diagnostic procedures, medical consultations and treatments provided by health care providers as defined in the 2003 First Ministers Accord on Health Care Renewal. 2
Direct health care includes the following:
| Medical care |
| Nursing Care |
| Dental Care |
| Pharmaceutical services |
| Mental health (psychiatric and psychological services) |
| Specialized services (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, |
| Laboratory analysis services |
| Dietician services |
| Vision Care |
| End-of-life care |
| Preventive treatment |
| Non-insured health benefits |
| Admission of recipients and telephone services |
| Administrative services related to health care |
For the purposes of this audit, the following activities are not considered part of direct health care:
- information sessions on prevention (such as seminars on fetal alcohol syndrome);
- health promotion;
- specialized non-medical home care (such as services provided by social workers or early childhood care for Aboriginals).
The audit also excludes health care provided in Canadian hospital facilities that are not under the direct jurisdiction of the Government of Canada because they are under the authority of the provincial and territorial governments as per the Constitution of Canada, with the exception of health care facility transfers. Similarly, it does not cover primary health care provided to all Canadians. These services are defined as the initial contact between the patient and the health care system, and health practitioners (physicians, nurses and pharmacists) are under the jurisdiction of the provincial and territorial governments.
The audit criteria can be found in Appendix E of this report.
