December 8, 2025
NDP: Protect Local Lab Services, Protect Jobs
QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario NDP Shadow Minister for Health, France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) and Shadow Minister for Labour Jamie West (Sudbury) questioned Health Minister Sylvia Jones about the sale of LifeLabs to an American conglomerate and the subsequent job losses in Sudbury and province wide.
“Medical laboratories are a cornerstone of our health care system. Last year, Quest, a US company, purchased LifeLabs. To increase their profit, they are laying off medical laboratory technologists in Sudbury. Now, lab samples from Timmins, North Bay, Algoma, Hearst, and Sudbury will be driven to Toronto. When the highways are closed, those samples will age out, and the people will have to redo them. What was the Premier thinking when he agreed to let an American company purchase Ontario’s biggest medical lab provider?” MPP Gélinas asked
Quest Diagnostics Acquisition of LifeLabs was announced on August 26th, 2024.
“The root of this is the Premier is a jobs disaster. There are 40 medical laboratory technologists in Sudbury who will lose their jobs, and they’re joining 40 health care workers in North Bay, 192 health care workers in Niagara, 62 health care workers in Hamilton. Wait times for specialists and at hospitals are already too long. There are thousands of people without a family doctor or primary care. Ontarians can’t access the health care they need. And now, with more health care job losses, there will be less care and longer wait times for Ontarians” MPP West stated.
“Speaker, my question is simple, when will the Premier finally start fighting for health care workers so Ontarians can get the care they need?”
On October 23 Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) released the Ontario Health Sector: 2025 Spending Plan Review suggesting that if the Ford government’s current funding levels remain 7,263 nurses could be cut by 2027-28, further reducing of nurses per capita.
