"Protect our lab services, and protect the North,” NDP MPPs Gélinas and West raise concerns about LifeLabs closures at Queen’s Park

QUEEN’S PARK – This morning in the legislature, NDP Shadow Minister of Labour, Energy and Mines MPP Jamie West (Sudbury), and NDP Shadow Minister of Health MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt), both questioned Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones on the closure of local lab services in Sudbury.

“LifeLabs was sold to an American company. Now, they’re going to close the Sudbury laboratory testing facility. Under the Premier’s watch, another 40 Northern Ontario Workers will lose their jobs. There will be even fewer opportunities in Northern Ontario for our lab-tech students, and most importantly, because samples shipped down south may be delayed or lost, Northern patients will face greater uncertainty.

“Premier Ford loves to say, “Protect Ontario,” so why isn’t he protecting Northerners from this American company?” MPP West asked.

LifeLabs is Ontario's biggest private for-profit provider of community laboratory services. They were acquired by New Jersey based Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) in August of 2024.

“Quest Diagnostics, the American for-profit company that bought LifeLabs, is closing its testing facility in Sudbury. This is not acceptable. For us in the North, that means: the quality of samples is compromised, it is harder to preserve and develop staff skills, we become more vulnerable during emergencies, we lose a training facility for Medical Laboratory Technologists, the list goes on.

“Rather than paying an American company to collect samples and transport them to Toronto to test northern samples, why won’t the Premier direct the Minister of Health to pay Northern hospitals to do the same work; only better, faster and cheaper?”

During a pre-budget consultation with the province at Sudbury’s Days Inn on January 30th, 2024, representatives from the Medical Laboratory Professionals Association of Ontario spoke to the lab closure, stating: “It’s going to be detrimental to this community. This will affect so much more than just the lab sector; it will affect all of health care. The right thing to do is keep these centres open for testing.”

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