A local delegation is representing Chatham-Kent in Toronto this week at a meeting of health boards and public health officials from across Ontario.
Chatham-Kent councillors Alysson Storey, Lauren Anderson, and Carmen McGregor, along with CK Public Health CEO April Rietdyk, are taking part in the Association of Local Public Health Agencies (ALPHA) annual general meeting at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health on June 12-14.
The event marks the association’s first in-person annual general meeting in over three years.
McGregor, who has been a Board of Health member with ALPHA since 2014, said the AGM provides delegates with the opportunity to lobby provincial government representatives for additional healthcare funding.
“Currently, right now, the funding we get from the province and what our mandates are based on the Public Health Act… we cannot meet all of our goals required by the province with the funding that we have. We can’t carry it out, financially we can’t do it. We can’t run the programs,” she said. “As a director on the Board of Health, I can’t influence day-to-day actions [in health care]. What I can influence as a Board of Health member is to lobby to get them more money so that they can do the appropriate programming and offer the appropriate support to their staff.”
The AGM also included presentations by guest speakers, such as Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore.
McGregor said several speakers presented data on mental health and burnout among healthcare workers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like everywhere else in the province, our workers in public health have experienced a great deal of challenging issues over the last number of years,” she said. “Probably what will come back through our board of health is what there is to offer [health care] staff and workers.”
McGregor said a report will be presented to the Chatham-Kent Board of Health at a future meeting detailing the information brought forward during the annual general meeting.
ALPHA is a not-for-profit organization that provides leadership to Ontario’s boards of health. The association represents all of Ontario’s 34 boards of health, medical officers and associate medical officers of health, and senior public health managers in each of the public health disciplines.
