N.B. nurses union’s proposal to temporarily merge services raises linguistic duality concerns

The New Brunswick Nurses Union is advocating for temporary amalgamations of certain services offered by both Horizon and Vitalité in order to pool staff and address the nursing shortage in the short term.

“Some hard decisions, temporarily, need to be made. I’m not saying shut down a service completely and I’m not saying amalgamate and we’ll never see it again,
but if we only have so many nursing resources in this province, we gotta use them properly,” union president Paula Doucet said on Tuesday.

Dr. Hubert Dupuis, the president of Égalité santé en français, a group advocating for the preservation of linguistic duality in health care, told Global News on Thursday he wholeheartedly opposes the idea.

He said he believes this goes against the notion of equality between New Brunswick’s linguistic communities, as outlined in a section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that states that both communities have “the right to distinct educational institutions and such distinct cultural institutions as are necessary for the preservation and promotion of those communities.”

While both Horizon and Vitalité have an obligation to offer bilingual services to patients, talks of reducing linguistic duality often generates controversy.

Érik Labelle Eastaugh, director of the International Observatory on Language Rights, said in an interview on Thursday said the temporary merger could work.

“The underlying purpose of these two health authorities is to provide each linguistic community with a degree of autonomy and independence in the management of it’s health-care services.”

He said what the nurses’ union’s suggestion could potentially be put into practice while respecting language laws, depending on how it’s done.

“The specific services that are offered by each health authority aren’t set in stone. So there is room within the law for the Minister to determine that certain services will only be offered by one authority or the other,” Labelle Eastaugh said.

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Health Minister Bruce Fitch told Global News on Wednesday he was willing to consider the idea.

“It’s a great idea, and that sharing of resources is, I think, something you’ll see more and more as we go forward. So I’m more than happy to take up that idea and have discussions, whether it’s the union or again some of the physicians,” he said.

Labelle Eastaugh said, however, that this summer’s wiping of Vitalité’s board could present some complications in allowing the proposed temporary mergers to go ahead.

“It’s unclear whether at the moment under the existing structure where Vitalité is operating under the control of (government appointed trustees) is capable of respecting and exercising the collective rights to management and control over health care that Vitalité is supposed to be exercising on behalf of the francophone community,” he said.

Égalité santé en français is currently suing the provincial government over the firings, saying it was a violation of Charter rights.