Porcupine and Timiskaming Health Unit announce voluntary merger to boost services

The Porcupine Health Unit (PHU) and the Timiskaming Health Unit (THU) are moving towards a voluntary merger.

In a release on Wednesday, both respective boards of health announced they are taking steps to merge to strengthen its public health in the communities they serve.

"The merger will strengthen local public health programs and services while increasing efficiencies," says Dr. Glenn Corneil, Acting Medical Officer of Health for the Timiskaming Health Unit. 

"All of us are looking at what we can do now coming out of the pandemic to try to improve the services that we offer," he added.

"This is just a natural progression and the timing of this works very well for both organizations."

The announcement comes just over a week after the Ontario government offered funding incentives to public health units that voluntarily merge. 

However, Corneil told CBC this process has been in the works since 1998, when the two health units came close to merging.

"We restarted again in the spring when we had capacity coming out of the pandemic. We've been doing a lot of groundwork over the summer and we're ready to move forward with this."

Corneil added there are significant benefits for both organizations and districts through the merger. 

He said the merger would help both organizations expand outreach, avoid duplicate work and further support health promotion. 

Mayor Jeff Laferriere, the mayor of Temiskaming Shores, said he hopes the two units consider the vast territory and do their "homework" to ensure that the delivery of the services is not only maintained, but also improved.

"I believe that this is a good thing, to have the two boards talking together and see how they can maybe improve the efficiencies and ensure that they deliver the services that we require in our community," Laferriere added. 

Corneil emphasized that this merger is a voluntary measure by the two health units, and is not being driven by cost savings, office closures or job cuts and hopes it will create more opportunities. 

"These mergers are to improve efficiencies and do more delivering of public health services. It's not about cost savings or job cuts."

For its timeline, Corneil said there are a number of components, including government approval which are outside of the health units control.

But he told CBC Sudbury he expects the merger to happen sometime in 2024. 

Corneil reassured that programs and services will continue as status quo and the units will continue to engage with community partners and municipalities to maintain strong local connections throughout the merging process. 

"We're very excited to see where we land and how this will improve services for the new district, which is geographically very large."