Local public health unit to continue with merger plans, despite pushback from City of Brantford
The City of Brantford and Brant County Health Unit (BCHU) are butting heads over a plan to merge the local public health unit with the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit (HNHU).
At a Brantford council meeting Tuesday evening, Coun. Dan McCreary — who represents the city on the board of health — told councillors he became “very concerned, very quickly with respect to the direction that this proposed amalgamation is headed in.”
The local health unit, which serves the separate municipalities of the City of Brantford and the County of Brant, started looking into the feasibility of amalgamating with HNHU and Southwestern Public Health following an August 2023 announcement from the Ministry of Health (MOH) offering funding and support to health units merging voluntarily.
The amount of funds health units would receive is unclear, although slides from a presentation by the MOH in October 2023 show a three-year merger transition fund could cover costs related to temporary staffing, consulting services, wage harmonization, IT and capital infrastructure.
In April, BCHU and HNHU announced their plans to move forward with a merger. Southwestern Public Health opted not to.
During an in-camera session at the April 17 BCHU board of health meeting, eight board members voted in favour of the merger, with McCreary the only one voting against.
McCreary is concerned that, while Brantford would represent the largest population — and therefore largest financial levy — of the partners in the merger, it might not have proportional representation on the amalgamated board, he told The Spectator in an email.
Public health units promote healthy living and disease prevention with information and resources related to topics such as vaccinations, sexually transmitted infections, addictions, and healthy growth and development, according to the MOH website.
McCreary expressed concern in his email that some of the “urban” public health concerns Brantford is faced with — such as “homeless, opioid, needle exchange and population density issues” aren’t experienced to the same extent in rural Haldimand-Norfolk.
Embedding the health unit in the municipality would give the city more “control over our own destiny with respect to the health needs of our community,” McCreary wrote.
On Tuesday, he put forward a resolution to instruct city staff to gather information about the process of embedding the health unit in the municipality — despite the health unit’s lawyer threatening legal action.
City councillors voted 9-1 in support of the resolution.
However, it’s unclear how much say the city actually has in the situation.
The BCHU is a corporation empowered by the province and the MOH website states that when health units consider merging, the municipalities are consulted after the business case for merger has been submitted.
On the other hand, if the city wanted to submit a business case for bringing a health unit in house, it would require “the explicit approval by the board of health,” Mayor Kevin Davis said on Tuesday — something it will not have.
At a BCHU board meeting on Wednesday, the board voted in favour of a motion put forward by Brant County councillor John Bell affirming the board was not in favour of embedding within the City of Brantford structure.
A merger between public health units representing Brantford-Brant and Haldimand-Norfolk is in the “best interests of health of our whole community,” board chair Susan Brown affirmed at the board meeting.
She pointed to the opportunity to put “a lot of dollars” into the health unit “to make it a more effective organization.”
Brown reminded the board that it was made fully aware of all info related to the merger, voted in favour of it, and members have a duty to support decisions of this board both in and outside the boardroom.
However, McCreary argues that because “nearly all discussion and information about a merger was conducted in secret,” Brantford councillors were unable to share information with their council and constituents as per in-camera rules.
Brown told The Spectator in an emailed statement that BCHU is “committed to ensuring that our funding partners and community are informed about BCHU and public health-related matters.”
The statement went on to say that any merger talks that took place in camera were “to protect the sensitive nature of the material being discussed.”
Brown noted the other merger partners also carried out their merger-related discussions in camera at their respective board meetings, and the board “sought a regular legal opinion/advice regarding the use of in-camera sessions for these matters.”
At council on Tuesday, Davis indicated Brantford council will make a final decision about pursing embedding at their meeting on May 28.
Whether or not they face legal action is to be determined, as Brent Richardson, CEO of BCHU told The Spectator that decision would need to be made by the board of health at a future meeting.
For now, Richardson said the health unit continues to “look forward to pursuing a merger with the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit.”
“We believe a merger will greatly improve the health unit’s ability to deliver public health programs and services to our community.”
Celeste Percy-Beauregard’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows her to report on stories about Brant County. Reach her at cpercybeauregard@torstar.ca.
Celeste Percy-Beauregard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator
