Public Health officials in Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton may soon talk merger.

Council will be asked on Monday to okay negotiations between the two in an effort to find efficiencies and potentially head off a forced union.

In the spring, the provincial government announced wholesale changes to health units, including the potential to roll Chatham-Kent’s health unit in with Sarnia Lambton, London Middlesex and Windsor Essex.

That plan was put on hold, but the government has continued the push as recently as this summer’s AMO Conference, to find efficiencies in the health units.