- Hub staff

The public support for an external review of the Grey/Bruce Health Unit has been growing steadily over the past month.  A Change.org petition addressed to Sue Paterson, Chair of the Grey Bruce Board of Health and Dr. David Williams, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer, gathered over 700 signatures in the first 24 hours, and is well over 900 at this writing.

"The subject of the Grey/Bruce Health Unit (GBHU) and its overall “health” as a functioning community resource has been on many people’s minds since the publication of The 2020 Sunshine List and the Owen Sound City Council meeting of March 29, 2021.

We, the undersigned, urgently request a third party/external organizational review of the GBHU in partnership with an appropriate representative from the Ministry of Health. 
In particular, we seek clarity on the following:

How did Dr. Arra become the highest paid Medical Officer of Health (MOH) in the province? At $631,000, Dr Arra earned more than the Premier of Ontario and the Prime Minister of Canada combined and more than any other MOH in Ontario, including the Chief MOH, Dr. David Williams. What system allowed for this situation and can we afford these wages?

How has the Health Unit come to lose as many as 17 experienced, high level staff since 2019? Gone is over 200 accumulated years of public health experience, expertise and training.  Roles in human resources, epidemiology and infection control are empty and have been since January 2020.  We need the right people in the right jobs in order to meet our community's health needs."

JA from Owen Sound commented next to his signature: "A reasonable request for the taxpayers & citizens of Grey-Bruce", while RR from South Bruce says: "....I believe in transparency in the operations of publicly funded institutions." And finally, LM of Owen Sound points out: "If there is nothing to hide, this (an external review) should be painless."

The petition is asking for an independent review of the Health Unit’s operations including finance and human resource management, reported publicly.

source: Change.org