Sudbury and Algoma health units disagree on proposal to merge

Two northern Ontario health units disagree on whether or not they should move ahead with a merger, effectively making it a no-go.

On Tuesday morning, Algoma Public Health's board voted unanimously against developing a proposal to the province to merge with Public Health Sudbury and Districts.

Later that afternoon, though, Public Health Sudbury and Districts' board voted unanimously in favour of a merger.

Both votes were in response to the Ministry of Health's announcement last August that it would provide funding support to Ontario health units that choose to merge. 

Had the plan in northern Ontario gone through, the merger would have created a new public health unit serving about 350,000 people spread over a wide geographical area.

Ontario has had plans to combine some public health units into larger regional entities since 2019, but those were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Merger can't go ahead, says Sudbury chair

Public Health Sudbury board chair René Lapierre said because Algoma voted no on the proposed merger, it won't go ahead.

"The recommendation to government to proceed to anything further had to be in agreement with both boards," he said.

Lapierre added the provincial government has not hinted to him that it would force a merger between both health units if they couldn't agree to one voluntarily.

"They have said to us from the get-go that this was a voluntary process. We have taken them at their word," said Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Matthew Shoemaker, who sits on the Algoma Public Health board.

"I would hope they stay true to their word on that front and don't subsequently use this as the impetus to forcefully merge us."

Shoemaker said he voted no out of a concern that a larger health unit would have services consolidated in Sudbury.

"There is an inevitable pull to the larger metropolitan area, which is Sudbury," he said.

Shoemaker said if the two health units had decided to merge, Sault Ste. Marie would have lost some of its independence in decision-making on public health matters.

"I found no real significant benefits in the merger that would help improve our population health in our community, especially in this health-care and climate that we have right now," said Algoma Public Health board member Deborah Graystone.

Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, Public Health Sudbury's medical officer of health, said she voted in favour of a merger because a larger health unit would mean more staff available to serve a larger area.

She said a merger between both health units would also have created opportunities for sharing best practices between both areas.