SUDBURY—Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) has begun the process of exploratory dialogue with a couple of other neighbouring health units to look at the possibility of voluntary mergers in light of recent provincial announcements and building of previous collaboration.
Rene Lapierre, chair of the PHSD board of health told The Expositor last week, “the board (at its September meeting) decided to go ahead and pass a motion to talk to a couple of neighbouring health units about merging.”
Mr. Lapierre noted that, recently, the PHSD had received notification from the province that it would receive a one percent increase over its base budget again this year (a rate that hasn’t changed since 2018). “And the province had indicated they want health units to resurrect merger opportunities that had been looked at in 2019 prior to the pandemic. The difference between now and the past is that instead of the province dictating to health units, we were given a set of criteria and have the opportunity to look at merging together and make suggestions to the province.”
“The province also indicated that it has money for things like infrastructure, human resource matters and consulting when we look at these mergers,” said Mr. Lapierre. “So, if two or three health units want to look at merging, the province would provide some financial assistance toward making this happen.” Mr. Lapierre pointed out the Timmins (Porcupine Health Unit) and Temiskaming Public Health Units are well underway on working toward a merger and the province has given the latter two health units the blessing to move forward.
“Our board agreed that we will talk to both the Algoma and North Bay Public Health Units to see if there is any interest in working towards merging with us,” said Mr. Lapierre. “Our first meeting involving all three board chairs and their medical officers of health will take place (last Friday). In 2019 we did some preliminary work on this, so a little preliminary work has already been done. And now that the province is giving us the flexibility to look at merging voluntarily and have tied some financial support to this, we are going to explore the possibility.”
Mr. Lapierre further explained, “the province announcement of an additional one percent on the base budget for health units is for the current year. The province has also said if mergers do take place voluntarily, they will provide one-time funding and support to increase our ability to provide care for more people.”
“No, the one percent increase in base funding does not even come close to inflationary costs we have,” said Mr. Lapierre. “And between 2018-2023 a one percent increase (each year) is not significant. Our collective agreements with staff employees have increased by 2.5-3 percent the past couple of years and the cost of doing things has increased. So, we are facing a shortfall all the time.”
