A St. Boniface man is rallying his community to keep their bilingual QuickCare clinic alive.

After the WRHA announced plans last week to close the St. Mary's Road clinic by Jan. 27, Patrick Fortier decided to start a petition.

He said he and his wife have brought their three young children to the clinic several times.

"The nurse practitioners are excellent, they know what they are doing and they can quickly diagnose and provide a prescription or some tips on how to deal with that, so I have always found, in my ... personal experience, [it's] a good place to go with your kids," he said.

The Division scolaire franco-manitobaine school trustee said he started with a Facebook page Thursday evening, and by Friday morning had decided to do the petition.

As of Saturday morning, it had 62 signatures.

"There definitely seems to be a lot of interest out there," Fortier said. "I've been speaking with a lot of folks, neighbours and friends who live in St. Boniface, for the last week or so and a lot of people have been talking about this — so I decided to do something."

He hasn't been in touch with the provincial government yet, but he believes they need to hear the community's interest in keeping French-language medical services in the heart of St. Boniface.

Image | QuickCare Clinic

Caption: This QuickCare Clinic on St. Mary's Road at Horace Street will be closed down at the end of January. (Google Street View)

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"I don't think the government necessarily intentionally wanted to reduce the provision of French language services ... and that's why we're raising awareness about it," he said.

"It's more just to make them aware that hey, we really care about keeping this bilingual QuickCare clinic open."

People can also file a complaint under the province's French-language services law if they're interested, he said.

A copy of the petition will be sent to Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen and Francophone Affairs Minister Rochelle Squires every time someone signs, Fortier said.

Bilingual services are available at the 620 Dakota Street and 170-115 Vermillion Road clinics, the province has previously said.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Manitoba government told Radio-Canada by email that the closure of the QuickCare clinic was "an operational decision made by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. We rely on the leadership of the WRHA to manage its day to day operations and address such matters as they arise."

A request has been sent to the province for comment on Fortier's petition.