**FRANCOPHONE AFFAIRS NEWS RELEASE**

Ontario is providing more people with better access to high-quality health care closer to home, with a new Francophone Community Health Centre coming to Timmins. The new Timmins Francophone Community Health Center will connect Francophone Ontarians in Timmins and the surrounding areas with a range of health care professionals and French-language services, to address a broad variety of healthcare needs, including mental health and chronic disease management. Team-based health care clinics help empower patients and their families and encourage them to be active participants in living healthy lives. Ontario is creating new and expanded primary care programs and services in order to respond to the health and social service needs of communities across the province, including Franco-Ontarians, newcomers and seniors.

Ontario’s plan to support care, create opportunity and make life more affordable during this period of rapid economic change includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25, and 65 or over, through the biggest expansion of Medicare in a generation.

QUOTES

“Our government is committed to ensuring everyone in Ontario has access to high-quality primary care, closer to home. The support of interprofessional primary care teams in the community is an important and significant step toward achieving this goal.”
— Dr. Helena Jaczek, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care

“This is wonderful news for Francophones in the Timmins region and another example of our government’s commitment towards the active offer of French services in the North and across the province. The new Community Health Centre will ensure that Francophone families have more options when it comes to health services in French and strengthen the vibrant Franco-Ontarian community in the region.”
— Marie-France Lalonde, Minister of Francophone Affairs ”

“The North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN) worked closely with the Timmins Francophone community, including the Réseau du mieux-être francophone du Nord de l’Ontario, to help identify the primary care needs of area Francophones. Our NE LHIN Board Member Denis Bérubé chaired a local Collaborative Committee to undertake this vital planning work. We want to thank the members of the Collaborative for their hard work, as well as other system partners who contributed to building a stronger primary care future for Francophones in the Timmins area.”
—Jeremy Stevenson, CEO of the NE LHIN

QUICK FACTS

? The North East LHIN will receive over $ 2.1 million for Timmins Francophone Community Health Center as part of Ontario’s commitment to expand access to interprofessional primary care across the province. ? In the 2017 Budget, the province made a commitment of $15.5 million for 2017-18 and an additional 27.8 million in 2018-19 to create and expand interprofessional primary care teams (Family Health Teams, Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinics, Community Health Centres) focusing on areas with the greatest needs.
? Ontario has also committed $329.2 million over five years to recruit and retain interprofessional primary care professionals.

? There are currently 294 interprofessional care teams across Ontario delivering care to more than four million people.
? The province is providing $23 million per year over three years to improve care coordination for complex patients through the Health Links initiative.