Two local health units await approval from the Ministry of Health on their application to merge, but in the meantime, documents from the Brant County Health Unit (BCHU) board meeting this week give more insight into how a merger with the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit (HNHU) would play out.
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The two public health units announced plans to merge in April, submitting a joint business case to the ministry on May 31, according to the agenda from the June board meeting.
The move followed a provincial call for merger proposals from Ontario’s 34 health units.
Brant taking the lead
Part of the application process involves identifying a “lead” agency, Ryan Spiteri, manager of communications for BCHU, told The Spectator in an email.
He said both units agreed BCHU should take on this role because it is “an autonomous health unit,” meaning it acts independently from the municipality.
If the ministry approves the merger transition budget, funding would flow to BCHU, which would transfer payments as required to HNHU “for merger-related expenses and other vendors for shared merger-related expenses/costs” on behalf of both units, Spiteri said.
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How soon could the merger happen?
The health units expect to receive ministry approval sometime between August and October, according to a merger update report in the July BCHU board meeting minutes.
In the meantime, a governance transition committee composed of members from each health unit will meet regularly, the report says.
As for when the actual merger could occur, Jan. 1, 2025, is the ministry mandated date for the “legal merger,” when the public health units are officially joined to create a new public health entity, “dissolving the previous local public health units,” Spiteri said.
The legal merger is largely symbolic, and the actual integration of the two health units into a new single entity would roll out gradually over the course of 2025, he said.
Celeste Percy-Beauregard is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
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