Minutes Confirmed on January 20, 2025

This meeting of the Board of Health was conducted by electronic means and the proceedings of the Board of Health were conducted publicly.

The Board of Health:

1. Referred the item to the Medical Officer of Health Hiring Committee for further review.

The Board of Health recessed its public meeting to meet in closed session to consider the item as it relates to personal matters pertaining to the appointment of a Medical Officer of Health.

Over the past several months, the Medical Officer of Health Hiring Committee has been working alongside Phelps Group to find Toronto’s next Medical Officer of Health in preparation for Dr. Eileen de Villa’s departure at the end of this year. After an extensive search and interview process, we are bringing forward a recommendation to appoint the new Medical Officer of Health.

A report on the appointment of the recommended Medical Officer of Health will be submitted for consideration to the November 18th meeting of the Board of Health.

The purpose of this report is to recommend to the Board of Health an appointment to the position of Medical Officer of Health (MOH).

The Board of Health:

1. Directed the Medical Officer of Health and the Chair, Board of Health, to submit a letter to the Ministry of Health responding to the Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act.

On November 18th, the Provincial government tabled Bill 223, which includes the Community Care and Recovery Act. This act is the result of the government’s commitment to ban supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and child care centres from earlier this year. It stipulates that no person shall establish or operate a supervised consumption site at a location that is less than 200 metres from a designated premises. This legislation will force the closure of at least five supervised consumption facilities in Toronto, putting countless lives at risk and burdening our first response services.

As this board has previously shared its support for safe consumption sites, I recommend that we direct the Medical Officer of Health to provide comments on Bill 223 on our behalf.

The Board of Health recommends that:

1. City Council appoint the Associate Medical Officer of Health identified in Confidential Attachment 1 to the report (December 5, 2024) from the Chair, Medical Officer of Health Hiring Committee to the position of Acting Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto Health Unit effective on January 1, 2025. 

2. City Council authorize the appropriate City officials to take the necessary action to give effect thereto, including the introduction in Council of the necessary bill to appoint the candidate as the Acting Medical Officer of Health under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, R.S.O. 1990, c H.7 ("HPPA").

3. City Council authorize the public release of the name and Curriculum Vitae summary of the Acting Medical Officer of Health contained in Confidential Attachment 1 to the report (December 5, 2024) from the Chair, Medical Officer of Health Hiring Committee upon City Council's approval of the appointment.

The Board of Health recessed its public meeting to meet in closed session to consider the item as it relates to personal matters pertaining to the appointment of an Acting Medical Officer of Health.

The purpose of this report is to recommend to the Board of Health an appointment of an Acting Medical Officer of Health (MOH).

Announcements

The Chair acknowledged that the Board of Health was meeting on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. The Chair also acknowledged that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.

The Chair further acknowledged that not all people came to these lands as migrants and settlers, and specifically acknowledged those who came here involuntarily, particularly those brought to these lands as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. In support of the City of Toronto's ongoing efforts to confront anti-Black racism, the Chair paid tribute to those ancestors of African, Caribbean and Black origin and descent.

Where the Directors of the Board of Health listed in the attendance for this meeting participated remotely, they were counted for quorum as permitted by Section 189(4.2) of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, and the Board's Procedures, as amended.