This is the only letter to the Board of Health re: questions about Dr. Arra that appears in today's agenda package. Letters sent to the Board are included at someone's discretion.
March 31, 2021
Open Letter to:John A. Tamming,Councillor, City of Owen Sound; Cathy Moore Coburn,Councillor, Municipality of Georgian Bluffs ;Melissa Kanmacher, Councillor, Municipality of Arran-Elderslie; Ryan Greig,Councillor, Municipality of Arran-Elderslie
Re: Your Letter to the Grey Bruce Board of Health
I have just read the letter the four of you wrote as elected members of separate local municipal councils. on your own behalf and not on behalf of your councils and I feel compelled to respond on my own behalf to this unwarranted attack on our Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Arra.
Over the last year I have had occasion to work and correspond with Dr. Arra on a number of COVID related issues. He has worked tirelessly over the past year to put in place and enforce protocols that have kept Grey Bruce safe. The results of this hard work are evident in our relatively low case counts and the fact we have had only four deaths.
Particularly impressive is the fact we have had no major outbreaks in our Long Term Care Homes and Seniors Residences. Unlike most of the rest of Ontario, the few cases we have had have been quickly contained and isolated through rigorous application of best practice health protocols. In contrast, in most of the rest of Ontario there have been large outbreaks in long term care facilities and many deaths.
In addition, through the contact tracing efforts of our Health Unit, cases relating to outbreaks in the community, including one involving our staff, have been quickly isolated and contained. In addition, he and his team have:•been proactive in working with Chapman’s to procure deep freezers so we were set-up to store and deliver the Pfizer vaccine;•developed the Hockey hub model to transform arenas into mass vaccination sites;•worked with the province on an endless number of other issues;
I am advised that Dr. Arra’s salary is set by the Ministry of Health and includes a provision for overtime. Although I don’t know the exact details of the hours he works, on multiple occasions re has called me or responded to my e-mails late at night, a few times after midnight. Just last night I received a response to an enquiry of mine on behalf of our senior sat2:12 am. As head of a relatively small health unit, he does not have the support that Medical Officers of Health of larger health units have. We are fortunate to have someone as dedicated and hard working as Dr. Arra. Our low case counts and deaths demonstrate that his hard work and leadership has paid off.
We should not be asking why he is being paid so much, but why other Medical Officers of Health haven’t worked equally as hard, earned the same amount of overtime, and achieved the same results.
In summary, I am shocked that you would object to paying someone for hard work and the resulting success, particularly when it is measured in the saving of lives. I believe he has outperformed most, if not all of the other Medical Officers of Health, and deserves to be compensated accordingly, so I don’t begrudge him his 2020 salary. He has earned it.
PS. When it comes to hard work, I wonder why only 48 of 444 municipalities in Ontario applied for the application-based Second Phase of COVID RecoveryFunding, including only 3 of the 17 municipalities in Grey Bruce. One can assume that the municipalities who didn’t apply either didn’t take any initiatives to support their citizens in the fight against COVID, or they simply didn’t bother to apply for funding.
Rather than spend time criticizing the hard, successful work of Dr. Arra and his team, I suggest that you start to do your part in the fight against COVID and turn your energies to setting your own houses in order.
Alar Soever, Mayor of The Town of the Blue Mountains. On my own behalf
