December 12,
2006
Liberals
table bill to move public health labs out of OPS
The
McGuinty government plans to move the province’s public
health labs out of the OPS.
Today in the
Legislature, the Liberals introduced a bill to create a new
Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. The
agency, at arm’s length from the Ministry of Health and
Long-Term Care (MOHLTC), would become the new employer for
close to 600 OPSEU members who currently work in public
health labs.
In addition to
lab work, the new agency would be responsible for
surveillance, epidemiology, research, and knowledge
exchange. It would also play a supporting role in the
province’s emergency management system.
The government
aims to pass the new legislation this spring and have the
agency up and running by 2008-09.
“It is not at
all clear how moving our public health labs out of the OPS
will in any way solve the biggest problem they face, which
is years and years of underfunding,” said OPSEU president
Leah Casselman. “The various reports that have come out over
the last few years have made it crystal clear that the
public health labs are drastically short of people and
equipment. That’s the problem that must be solved.
“Otherwise, the
government is just shuffling deck chairs, not steering a new
course.”
Casselman added
that moving public health further away from ministry
oversight would not increase democratic accountability.
“We support the
integration of public health functions and the creation of
the new agency as recommended by several blue-ribbon
reports,” she said. “That being said, moving the agency out
of the Ontario Public Service will hinder accountability,
not help it.
“We have seen
with previous divestments – the Municipal Property
Assessment Corporation comes to mind – that when things go
wrong, the Minister responsible has no way to take
corrective action,” Casselman said. “Too often, ‘at arm’s
length’ means ‘out of reach.’”
Transfer details
sketchy
According to an
MOHLTC briefing document made available to lab workers this
morning, the ministry is “not recommending or anticipating
any job loss” and is “not recommending any closure of
regional public health labs.”
The ministry
says that “in principle” MOHLTC employees who transfer to
the proposed agency would be able to stay with their current
pension plan, OPTrust. But the ministry also notes that many
such details would have to be arranged with the new agency
after it comes into existence.
“The last decade
has given us a lot of experience with exactly these kinds of
transfers,” said Casselman. “If a transfer occurs, we know
what to do."
The union has
convened a working group of lab workers and OPSEU staff to
analyze the bill and craft a strategy for dealing with it.
Committee members have already met by conference call and
will be doing outreach to members at each lab soon.
“In a situation
like this, the immediate priorities for us are 1) to
understand what is happening; 2) to communicate with our
members; and 3) to take action to protect our members’ best
interests and the community at large,” said Casselman. “The
union will be doing all three as we move into the new year.”
Working group
members so far are:
Patrick Fry-Smith
(Ministry Enforcement and Renewal Committee co-chair)
(905) 383-9838;
pfry@metrocity.com
Sal Dost (Local 113,
London)
(519) 455-9310;
sal_dost@hotmail.com
Jessica Landon (Local
154, Windsor)
(519) 969-4341;
jnljeo@sympatico.ca
John Guitar (Local
201, Hamilton)
(905) 385-5379
Mary Blodgett (Local
308, Peterborough)
(705) 743-6811,
mblodgett@cogeco.ca
Melanie Desjardins
(Local 314, Orillia)
(705) 325-7449;
dannymel@sympatico.ca
Dean Wiley
(Local 545, Toronto & MERC)
(416) 235-6135;
wileyde@rogers.com
Anne Mantha (Local
649, Timmins)
almantha@hotmail.com
Clay McKibbon (Local
716, Thunder Bay)
(807) 622-6449;
opseuclay@shaw.ca
Nancy Pridham OPSEU
Executive Board
(416) 407-4594; npridham@opseu.org
Patty Rout OPSEU
Executive Board and chair, OPSEU Sector 10 (Hospital
Professionals)
(905) 439-8044;
prout@opseu.org
Working group members for Locals 412 (Ottawa), 432
(Kingston), 601 (Sault Ste Marie), and 628 (Sudbury) will be
named soon.
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December 12, 2006 Issue of
Frontlines
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