TIMMINS -- The Centre de santé communautaire de Timmins celebrated its grand opening Jan. 27 at its Timmins Square location.

After a soft launch in November 2019, staff at the new primary care clinic hope it will reduce barriers to medical service in the city’s francophone community.

“Because their access to services is more limited than you would normally find in the mainstream, what we’ve decided to do as a francophone agency is to target those needs and to meet those needs,” said Julie Béchard, executive director of the health centre.

With a population of around 45,000, around a third of residents claim French as their first language.

Béchard said since opening, residents have expressed their relief in having a clinic with all French-speaking staff, saying the language barrier limited their ability to communicate with physicians.

“The difference is guaranteeing an access so from beginning-to-end to make sure that the whole experience is offered in French,” she said.

Béchard said Centre de Santé received around $2 million from the provincial ministry of health and long term care, which is split between salaries, operational costs and supplies.

The clinic also houses an Ontario Telemedicine Network station, which connects patients with French-speaking specialists, including through a partnership with the francophone hospital, Hôpital Montfort, in Ottawa.

The city’s French cultural centre, Centre Culturel-La Ronde, said it’s excited to finally see a service like this offered in the city.

“It’s an amazing service to the Timmins community that the people that will be using the services will be able to express themselves in their ‘langue maternelle’ (mother tongue),” said Lisa Bertrand, executive director at La Ronde.

“This is the only language that they know ... they’ll be able to express exactly their wants and needs,” Bertrand said.

The clinic solely offers services to francophone clients and their family members. Béchard said the clinic will help refer non-francophone residents to other services in the city.

She said the primary concern is filling a gap in services that’s needed filling for years.

“The francophone community is an aging community, which means that they could potentially have more complex needs when it comes to medical care,” Béchard said.