Algoma Public Health votes for study on merger with Sudbury despite concerns

Members of the Algoma Public Health (APH) board have voted in favour of engaging a company with Public Health Sudbury and Districts(PHSD) to explore the feasibility of a merger, although not without some dissent.

The board for PHSD voted last week to go forward with a feasibility study with Algoma and had been waiting for a APH to make a mutual decision.

Algoma medical officer of health, Dr. Jennifer Loo briefed the board saying provincial funding for the study would be available this month with proposals based on those studies due by March or April.

In 2019, the province announced its intention to combine 35 public health units into 10, but put that idea on the back burner during the pandemic.

Last August, it announced its intention to move forward with mergers on a voluntary basis, sparking current conversations at boards.

As for whether the Algoma Public Health board could say no to a merger, Loo explained that government officials said the decision is currently voluntary, but acknowledged that there is a risk of future non-voluntary restructuring if the government's goals aren't met in the next couple of years.

Board members also questioned the stated objectives of the province that it wants to improve service and reduce duplication.

Jody Wildman, mayor of St. Joseph Township on St. Joseph Island, said he thinks the authors of a feasibility study will concentrate on giving the government what it wants to hear.

"I mean you look at the objectives and it's a bunch of gobbledygook that you're going to get from a consultant except for a couple of sort of throw-in objectives that say, 'Yeah, we also want to make things better,' because of course they have to throw those in," he said.

"And so the government is telling us they're forcing us voluntarily, volun- telling us, to do these things," he said.

"Everybody knows the objective from their point of view is to save money by cutting people in offices and services."

Wildman suggested the board should try to force the government to look at improving services without amalgamating with another health unit.

Matthew Shoemaker, the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, said that pushing back against the government would be a good use of staff resources.

He worried that any merger would remove senior leadership from the city in favour of Sudbury and shut out the voices of smaller communities.

"I think that the loss of executive function in our community is something that I've discussed repeatedly, not with respect necessarily to Algoma Public Health, but with respect to Ontario Lottery and Gaming, which moved here in the early 90s and since then has moved much of their executive functions back to Toronto," he said by way of example.

"And so I would really struggle to support anything that would support a drain of executive functions from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury if that were ultimately the recommendation."

Shoemaker also questioned the province's motivation.

"I question the commitment not to reduce staff," he said. "If seems if their objective in 2019 was to save $200 million, that's probably still their objective, it's just not being said."

Board chair Sally Hagman, also mayor of Blind River, said after consulting with the ministry, she feels a feasibility study is a way of having some input into the process.

"I was personally left with the impression that we needed to get on the train," she said.

"We can stop the train, but we needed to get on the train to see what was happening because we don't want to have someone come and tell us what's going to happen with the train. We want to make sure that we have control of which direction that train is going in"

Board member Suzanne Trivers said that doing the feasibility study wouldn't necessarily put them on a track that someone else was building, but feels it would help them in discussions with the ministry and government to better express why they don't think amalgamation is in the best interests of their communities. 

"We know that our communities struggle from a health equity and a community health perspective more than the rest of the province," she said "Access to service is worse than in other parts of the province."

The discussions come as the Algoma Health Unit grapples with its budget.

Shoemaker says municipalities are having to increase their contributions by six per cent.

The province has increased the public health budget by one per cent, but Shoemaker says that falls short of what they need because of inflation and jobs will be lost through attrition.

Porcupine and Timiskaming health units positive on merger

As for other health units across the northeast, the North Bay and Parry Sound Health Unit will give direction on a potential merger at it's Nov. 29 meeting.

The Porcupine Health Unit (PHU) and the Timiskaming Health Unit (THU) Boards of Health have passed resolutions to move forward with a voluntary merger and are actively working on the merger together.  

A spokesperson for the PHU said the idea was explored even prior to 2019 and there are many discussion papers and reports that have been published over the years that recommend a merger between the PHU and the THU.

The merger will require approval by the government of Ontario but no timeline has been provided.