Eastern Health should not restrict French lessons to employees: Lorraine Michael
Newfoundland and Labrador's health authorities are shirking their responsibilities to provide services in French by failing to offer language lessons to all employees who want them, according to MHA Lorraine Michael.
The NDP member says she's received a letter from a nurse at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's who was not able to continue her government language lessons this fall, even though she wanted to — and had been taking classes since 2012.
Michael says the employee was told she'd have to wait until next year to take the lessons.
"I think this is terrible," Michael told Radio-Canada in a French interview. "This nurse was capable of speaking to French-speaking patients, we have searched for her presence, for example, for patients who don't speak a word of English."
"This was something that was part of her work."
New language program
French-language classes for public sector workers recently changed format, and are now self-directed instead of inside a classroom.
According to Radio-Canada, the nurse said that every Eastern Health employee who wanted to take the program was accepted in the past.
But Eastern Health said this year it had chosen 13 employees from areas which interact most often with French-speaking programs to test the new approach during its first year.
"This new learning offering consists of participants who were previously enrolled in the classroom-style program, individuals who are in service areas that typically have a higher number of French-speaking clients, along with a small number of other Eastern Health employees who have not previously been a part of the program," wrote spokesperson Brittany Mitchelmore in an email.
"Once the first cohort goes through the program, Eastern Health will evaluate the effectiveness of this approach."
Michael said it's important that employees learn to speak French and are able to interact with French-speaking patients from Newfoundland and Labrador or St. Pierre.
She said as a person who is learning French herself, she knows that going a year without French lessons can be a big obstacle to learning the language.
"I think it is the responsibility of the government, of Eastern Health and of the Health Sciences Centre to give the tools to workers so that they can be the person to welcome Francophones," she said.
"To give to people an atmosphere that says we are very happy to have you here with us."
