Government of Canada improves access to health services for Francophone minority communities in Ontario
Backgrounder
August, 2025
The following projects aim to improve access to health services in French for official language minority communities (OLMCs) across Ontario.
Government of Ontario
Project: Health Card Linguistic Identifier Awareness Project
Funding: $1,000,000 over four years (2024-2028)
The project with the Government of Ontario will improve the quality of data collection and analysis regarding the preferred official language of patients across the province. This will help facilitate better planning of health services in Ontario's OLMC.
Four post-secondary training institutions across Ontario, who are members of the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne - Consortium national de formation en santé (ACUFC - CNFS):
Project: Formation et maintien en poste des professionnels de la santé ("Training and retention of health professionals")
Funding: $33,211,880
- The University of Ottawa will receive more than $25 million over five years (2023-2028) to increase the number of students enrolling in the following health programs: Masters degree in audiology, Masters degree in occupational therapy, Masters degree in speech therapy, Masters degree in physiotherapy, Nurse practitioner, Bachelor and Master degree in nursing sciences, Bachelor degree in nutrition, Bachelor and Master degree in social work, Doctorate in clinical psychology, and Undergraduate medicine program.
- La Cité will receive more than $6 million over five years (2023-2028) to increase the number of students enrolling in the following health programs: Personal support work, Auxiliary nurse, Bachelors degree in Nursing sciences, Paramedical care, Pharmaceutical techniques, Electroneurodiagnostic, Respiratory therapy, Certificate in Visual orthoses (assistant), Dental hygiene, and Social work techniques.
- York University (Glendon Campus) will receive more than $1 million over five years (2023-2028) to increase the number of students enrolling in the following courses: Cognitive Health and Neurodegenerative Disorders; Brain and Behavior: An Introduction to Neuroscience; Cognitive Health and Prevention of Neurodegenerative Disorders: An Integral Approach; and Neuropsychology and cognitive disorders.
- The Collège Boréal will receive an additional $1 million over four years (2024-2028) to increase the number of students enrolling in and graduating from the Auxiliary nurse program.