‘Dangerous’: Closing Ontario labs would put lives at risk, workers warn Achi-News

Laboratory workers are warning of the potential for public health disasters if the Ontario government follows through on recommendations to close more than half of the province’s publicly funded testing sites.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) says members who work at six Public Health Ontario (PHO) laboratories have been informed of plans to close the facilities, although there has been no official word from the Ford government.

A value-for-money audit released by Ontario’s auditor general in December recommended closing six of the province’s 11 PHO laboratories.

“A lot of our work happens behind the scenes – unless there’s an emergency, many people may not even realize our labs exist,” said long-time PHO employee Casey McGuire at a press conference held with union officials and opposition MPPs on Wednesday.

“Until a disaster like Walkerton or a health crisis like COVID-19 comes to light, our work goes unseen.”

Seven people died and thousands were made sick after it. coli bacteria O157:H7 was found in the water supply of Walkerton, Ont. in 2000.

The union says the proposed changes would close labs in Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, Orillia, Hamilton, Kingston, and Peterborough.

In addition to testing water from wells, beaches, and public and private water supplies, PHO laboratories also process medical tests for diseases such as HIV, syphilis, tuberculosis, influenza, COVID-19 and West Nile virus.

The laboratories collect and process thousands of water samples and medical tests a day, according to the union.

Sudbury MPP Jamie West said centralizing the labs would add hours of travel time for samples, disproportionately affecting rural and northern communities and increasing the risk of contamination.

“We cannot afford to close more than half of our public laboratories and believe that everything will be fine,” said the New Democrats.

The auditor general’s report said about 70 percent of PHO’s $220 million in reported spending in 2022/23 went to its laboratory programs.

It found that the PHO laboratories were “not operating efficiently” with three of the 11 sites performing tests on only nine to 20 per cent of the samples and specimens they receive, with the rest being passed on to other sites.

The report did not identify the labs but said operating costs for each site have ranged between $5 and $10 million over the past five years.

But McGuire said the numbers don’t tell the whole story because samples are sometimes transported between labs because of staffing issues or because a particular lab specializes in a certain type of testing.

The Kingston lab, for example, takes care of virology tests for things like measles for the entire eastern region, he said.

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“So you could have a lab where they send 91 percent of their labs elsewhere, but (the audit) doesn’t say what percentage of the tests come back to the labs that,” he said.

“(The audit) says what goes out, but it doesn’t say what they actually keep.”

When asked about plans to close PHO labs a health ministry spokesman said there had been “no decisions regarding changes to the province’s well water testing program; including which laboratories carry out tests on water samples.”

The spokesperson drew attention to answers given by the health minister in response to the opposition’s questions during question period earlier this week.

“I want to be very clear: There have been no changes,” said Health Minister Sylvia Jones in Queen’s Park on Tuesday.

“People who want to test their well water – and there are thousands across rural Ontario, including in my own riding – take those tests to their public health unit. They are tested. They get those results. That continues.”

Workers from the potentially affected labs presented a petition with around 9,000 signatures opposing Queen’s Park on Wednesday.

Highlighting their importance during COVID-19, OPSEU president JP Hornick said PHO lab testing capacity should be expanded, not cut.

“If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that public health should never be taken for granted,” Hornick said in a statement.

“Like many choices made by this government, if Premier Ford decides to close the doors of these (six) laboratories it will be short-sighted and dangerous.”

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