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Government of Canada improves access to health care for newcomer families in Mississauga
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Mississauga, July 5, 2010 - Immigrant families will have better access to health care services at Credit Valley Hospital thanks to funding announced on June 29 by Member of Parliament Bob Dechert on behalf of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney.
“This investment demonstrates the government’s commitment to helping newcomers,” said Mr. Dechert.“The settlement worker program at Credit Valley Hospital will help newcomers to Canada overcome the challenges they often face in accessing the health care system.”
“A hospital can be confusing and intimidating for newcomers,” said Credit Valley Hospital President and CEO Michelle DiEmanuele. “Because of their familiarity with the many cultures and languages in our community, our settlement workers will be able to foster a caring and supportive environment for newcomer patients.”
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is providing $426,276 to the hospital to hire additional multilingual settlement workers who will support newcomer patients and their families throughout their admission to the hospital and during the patient’s stay.It is estimated that approximately 450 newcomers will benefit from this investment over the duration of the contribution agreement with the hospital, which is for May 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011.
These settlement workers will also assist health care personnel to understand customs or cultural norms that could affect treatment, and refer newcomers to appropriate health care providers and other settlement agencies in the community once they leave the hospital.
The most common languages of newcomers to the Peel-Halton Region are: Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic, Tagalog, Hindi, Gujarati, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese and Tamil. The Credit Valley Hospital settlement workers program will undertake to provide interpretation services in these languages. Interpretation services in additional languages may be offered.
Since the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA) was signed in 2005, the Government of Canada has more than tripled its annual spending on settlement services for newcomers in Ontario. As of March 31, 2010, the total spending in Ontario on services for newcomers since 2005-06 was $1.25 billion. For 2010-11, the Government of Canada will be investing $428 million in Ontario, for settlement services for newcomers, such as language training and job search workshops.
For more information on CIC programs, please visit: www.cic.gc.ca.
For More Information Contact :
Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
Ontario Region
Media Relations
416-954-7868
Ont-Communications@cic.gc.ca
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