TIMMINS - A new year means a new health unit for northeastern Ontario.
On Jan. 1, the Porcupine Health Unit and Timiskaming Health Unit officially became Northeastern Public Health.
Here's what we know so far about what that means:
Leadership
Dr. Lianne Catton keeps the title of medical officer of health and chief executive officer. She has been at the helm of the Porcupine Health Unit since 2019, service in the role in an acting capacity for a couple of years prior to that.
"I am very pleased to announce the official launch of one of the newest health units in Ontario," said Catton in the news release issued earlier this week.
"We look forward to bringing our dedicated public health teams together, building a new organizational culture, and supporting our staff through the process."
Area and operations
The new health unit includes 38 municipalities. It covers a huge swath of the region from the Temiskaming Shores area to Timmins, across to Hearst as far north as Moosonee.
Programs, services and office locations are staying the same, according to the news release.
The Porcupine Health Unit coverage area included the Cochrane district and Town of Hornepayne. The offices are in Cochrane, Hearst, Hornepayne, Iroquois Falls, Kapuskasing, Matheson, Moosonee, and Smooth Rock Falls, with the main office being in Timmins.
The former Timiskaming Health Unit offices are in New Liskeard, Kirkland Lake and Englehart.
Board members
Under the new model, Timmins — the largest municipality in the region — has three seats at the 13-member board of health table. At the PHU, it held four of the 12 seats.
The other representatives are from Temiskaming Shores, Kapuskasing, Kirkland Lake, Cochrane-Smooth Rock Falls, the rural Far North, rural north, rural central-north, and rural central-south.
Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau is the board chair, Temiskaming Shores Coun. Mark Wilson as vice chair.
How did we get here
To reduce the number of public health units in Ontario in 2019 the Ford government announced plans to go from 35 health units across the province to 10. When COVID-19 hit, those plans were put onto the backburner and resurfaced in 2023 when the province said it would offer cash and support for health units voluntarily merging.
The province signed off on the merger of the two area health units on Dec. 2.
During the process there were calls from some Timmins councillors to have a transparent merger process and have the health unit talk about it at council or another public meeting. The request was denied at the council meeting it was brought up at and there were no public sessions.
New look
The new logos and branding for Northeastern Public Health haven't been launched yet. That means that the public will still see the logos from the former health units until that happens.
The Porcupine Health Unit and Timiskaming Health Unit websites are both still active. Neph.ca is live but does not offer details about programs and services yet.
