- Hub staff

A local petition asking for an external review of the Grey Bruce Health Unit, addressed to Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer for Ontario, and the local Board of Health, will be presented to the Board at their meeting Friday morning.

The online petition has garnered almost 1500 signatures - equivalent to more than 1% of the adult population of Grey and Bruce Counties, but may have been signed by concerned outside our county lines. 

The petition, like most of the letters of concern about the Health Unit, does not reference Covid or the local handling of the pandemic which has widespread approval.  The focus is on the Board's accountability for MOH compensation far higher than anyone else's in Public Health in Ontario, including other Medical Officers of Health who worked through the pandemic without Assistants, and on the turnover and loss of experienced professional staff  at the managerial and director level.

The text of the petition is as follows:

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.

Please sign this petition asking for an independent review of the Health Unit’s operations including finance and human resource management, reported PUBLICLY.