Union, advocates and opposition politicians raise concerns about proposed closure of six Public Health Ontario labs

A union representing public health workers is warning the province against closing six of its labs.

There are 11 Public Health Ontario (PHO) labs. They are tasked with processing water samples and medical tests. The affected locations are in Hamilton, Kingston, Peterborough, Orillia, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie.

JP Hornick, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU), described the closure of six of these labs as “shortsighted and dangerous” on Wednesday.

“These labs are a vital part of our public health infrastructure,” they said to reporters at Queen’s Park. “Closing them will undermine our ability to detect and prevent the spread of disease and compromise our response to future health crises.”

“Centralizing testing to a few locations will increase travel time and compromise the integrity of samples,” added Hornick.

According to a report in December by the Auditor General’s office, the closures are meant to streamline the testing process. Some of the public health labs are not equipped to handle a large proportion of the non-COVID-19 tests they receive, so they wind up transferring them to other locations.

The report noted that four labs, including those in Sault Ste. Marie and Peterborough, transferred out a majority of their tests between 2018 and 2023.

The office recommended that the plan be implemented within 12 months.

Critics argue the move could force patients in rural communities to endure delays for their medical results.

“If the last few years have taught us everything, it’s that public health should never be taken for granted,” argued Hornick on Wednesday.

“We know that much of our work happens behind the scenes,” said Casey McGuire, a lab worker at PHO and a member of OPSEU.

“We catch contamination or concerns with your water before you drink it or swim in it,” she added. “We identify an outbreak such as measles before it spreads and help health care providers with diagnosis so treatment can begin swiftly. We cannot do that if you get rid of us.”

“When you’re talking about areas that rely on well water, and people who are on fixed incomes, or people who make minimum wage, or people in precarious work, when they’re not able to have easy access to free testing of their water, they make choices where they don’t have it tested,” said Sudbury MPP Jamie West at the same press conference.

“Not everyone in northern Ontario knows where Walkerton is, but we all know what Walkerton was,” he added. “We cannot afford to close down more than half of our public labs and believe that everything will be okay.”

OPSEU says it has collected around 9,000 signatures as part of a petition to stop the closures.

The union says there are 84 jobs at risk.