Yukon hosted the fourth ministerial conference in July of 1998. It was there that the national issue of santé en français caught fire. Encouraged by the interest of some governments in finding ways of facilitating the delivery of French-language health services, certain agencies and organizations subsequently embarked on a variety of initiatives in this area.

Canadian Heritage helped establish the Centre national de formation de professionnels de la santé at the University of Ottawa. With financial assistance from Health Canada, the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadiennes du Canada (FCFA) conducted a study to identify and promote various models for the delivery of health services to Francophones. In collaboration with the FCFA, Health Canada established the Consultative Committee for French-Speaking Minority Communities.

The Whitehorse meeting confirmed the federal government’s commitment to improve the administrative aspects of the federal-provincial-territorial agreements on the promotion of official language and to augment the resource envelopes.