Grey Bruce Public Health has been in the news over the past couple of weeks, and not just locally. The upheaval, which from the outside has appeared to be chaotic, not to mention confusing, began a couple of weeks ago when we learned that all seven of the municipal representatives on the board had been removed after receiving letters from the chair. There were no reasons given, no explanation of any kind. This week we learned that the Ontario government was stepping in citing ‘serious concerns’.
Dr. Kieran Moore, who is the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, issued a statement informing that he would assume control of the GBPH board.
“Following an independent assessment conducted under the health Protection and Promotion Act, serious concerns were identified regarding the Board of Health’s ability to fulfill its responsibilities,” read Moore’s statement. He noted that the concerns include governance, leadership, financial management, as well as human resources.
If you are confused, you are not alone.
When I wrote about the developments at Grey Bruce Public Health in our print newspaper last week (The 3Rs…Rants, Raves & Rumours, August 14, 2025), all we knew at the time was that municipal representatives had been removed from the board. We didn’t know why, we didn’t know who made that decision, and we didn’t know what was ahead. A week later, while we have received some new details, we don’t really know much more than we did a week ago, and that is frustrating for many.
Since last week’s newspaper the province has stepped in, and we have heard that the municipal members who had been removed from the board are still indeed part of the board, but there are no further details at this point.
A joint statement issued by the wardens of Grey and Bruce counties issued on August 15 confirmed that the board members would remain.
“Yesterday the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, issued a statement announcing he is temporarily assuming the powers of the Board of Health for the Grey Bruce Health Unit and is appointing a special advisor to support the Board. Further, all municipal appointees to the Board of Health have received a letter from the Chief Medical Officer of Health confirming that all municipal appointees remain on the Board,” read the opening paragraph of the statement issued by Bruce County Warden Luke Charbonneau and Grey County Warden Andrea Matrosovs on August 15.
The two wardens said in their statement that the “recent actions regarding the Board were unexpected, Bruce and Grey Counties appreciate the recent actions taken by the Ministry and we are reassured we have a path forward. Bruce and Grey Counties are committed to supporting the Board of Health and as they work with the Ministry of Health to ensure residents receive the quality public health services they need and deserve.”
So we have heard and read a lot of words over the past couple of weeks, but we are still in the dark as to what is actually going on. We, the regular Joes on the street, are still as confused as we were before. Transparency can of course sometimes require time, there can be legitimate reasons to withhold information from the public in the short term, but that doesn’t help the public understand a situation like this as it is unfolding.
Many I have talked to about this issue over the past week have noted what they perceive is a lack of transparency, and a lack of transparency can create a lack of trust. So my hope is that some real information will soon be released, information that will actually help the public understand the root causes of this recent chaos at the GBPH board, and not just the vague statements that we have received thus far.
Over the weekend I read a CBC article about the GBPH board chaos, and that article noted the lack of any real information.
“Moore’s statement said the move to assume the board’s powers comes under section 77.1 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act. Requests from CBC News for more information about the “serious concerns” mentioned in Moore’s statement were not responded to on Thursday,” reported the CBC. “Ontario NDP health critic France Gélinas earlier this week called on the Doug Ford government to make public more information about why the province is removing board members who were elected in their municipalities. This year the province took control of seven school boards, dismissing elected board members and putting supervisors in charge of running affairs.”
Many of the folks that have chatted with me about this ordeal have expressed frustration over being ‘teased’ with information, but not being given any real facts that could explain how we have arrived at the place we are today, with our local public health board in disarray, and with the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health having appointed a special advisor to help “restore effective leadership, rebuild key relationships, and support long-term stability.”
From the information that has been provided thus far, the situation sounds serious, but we don’t know how serious, we don’t know what sort of failures have led to the drastic actions that we have read about over the past couple of weeks. Few things can frustrate the public more than feeling like we are being intentionally left in the dark.
I have no doubt that we will eventually know the full story, we will at some point be given some straight, unfiltered information that will help to explain the events of the past couple of weeks, information that will help us understand the root causes. But people are right to feel confused and frustrated with as little as we know at this point.
