THUNDER BAY — The two Northwestern Ontario health units have decided not to voluntarily merge.
Both the Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU) and the Northwestern Health Unit (NWHU) used a third party to consult on the viability of a possible merger of the two agencies.
In August 2023, the province offered one-time funding if regional health units voluntarily merged by Jan. 2025.
Don Smith is the chair of the TBDHU and said their consultation called a merger "impractical" for a number of reasons.
"There's a huge difference in the levy cost between us and Northwest [Health Unit] is paying about $60 per capita.
"Thunder Bay's paying $30-ish per capita. The levies in the Thunder Bay District would jump about 35 per cent, which is huge."
Smith also noted that geography would be a large concern for the agencies.
"You'd be going from Manitouwadge and Marathon to basically the Manitoba border."
A release from the NWHU laid out the numbers on how a merger with such a large geographical scale would be difficult.
"Currently, NWHU serves 19 municipalities across an area of 173,828 km2 with a population of approximately 82,000.
"A merger with TBDHU would result in a catchment area that spans over 400,000 km2, limiting the organization’s ability to nimbly adapt services to meet the diversity of local health needs."
The release also noted that weather conditions and lengthy travel times would contribute to challenges if providing centralized services.
The CEO for the NWHU, Marilyn Herbacz, said benefits would have needed to be clear if both units were to merge.
"While the assessment project identified some benefits, it did not demonstrate a level of benefit over risks that could justify the significant disruption and cost of a merger.”
Smith noted that during a conference earlier this year, he spoke to provincial health minister Sylvia Jones.
"She adamantly told me that there would not be forced mergers."
"Servicing the public is what we're mandated to do and we want to do that to the best of our ability and to, to us, amalgamating was not going to let us work to the best of our ability," Smith said.
