Debate over Hamilton citizen reps on board of health punted to next council term
Published July 7, 2022 at 10:56 am
Adding expert, but non-elected voices to the board of health in Hamilton is back on the figurative table — although whether there will even be a such a board is an unknown.
The majority of city councillors voted yesterday (July 6) in favour of at least getting more information from the province about putting citizen representatives on the board. Both of the province’s two largest cities, Toronto and Ottawa, have a mix of councillors and citizens on their boards of health, but doing so has been resisted in Hamilton. Another X factor is that the Premier Doug Ford-led Ontario PC Party government has signalled that the it plans to remove more localized control of public health, with the 34 units perhaps reduced to 10 to 14. (Hamilton’s top doctor, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, who is the chief medical officer of health, said there is no knowledge of “what the direction may be.”)
Ward 9 Coun. Brad Clark, whose motion passed 9-3 and will go a ratification vote at the next council meeting, framed the vote as something for the next council to decide. The municipal election is on Oct. 24.
“We’re simply asking the province to tell us about the feasibility,” Clark noted, adding: “The next council (will make) this decision.”.
Many delegators to the board of health in the first half of 2021 implored council to ask citizen representatives. At that stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, areas of Hamilton with higher proportion of racialized, low-income and equity-seeking residents lagged behind the citywide averages in vaccination uptake. Uptake among racialized Hamiltonians has reached par in the last few months.
Clark and Couns. Jason Farr (Ward 2), Brenda Johnson (11), Nrinder Nann (3), Judi Partridge (15), Esther Pauls (7), Maria Pearson (10), Russ Powers (5) and Arlene VanderBeek (13) supported the motion. Mayor Fred Eisenberger and Mountain Couns. John-Paul Danko (8) and Tom Jackson (6) voted against it.
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“Last year we had people come in delegating to public health on the restructuring — many of whom were doctors or certainly within the health-care profession, saying we need to take a look at the setup of our board of health,” Partridge said. “None of us are experts on the health-care industry.”
Jackson, the longest-serving councillor, expressed concern about how citizen reps would be appointed.
“It scares me to think the province could be appointing people,” he said.
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