Mayor wants province to intervene in plan to shutter Sudbury lab

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Mayor Paul Lefebvre wants the provincial government to stop LifeLabs’ decision to close its Sudbury laboratory this spring, a move that will result in the loss of about 40 medical laboratory technologist jobs and shift testing for much of Northern Ontario to Toronto.

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“Shutting down this lab means samples from across Northern Ontario will be transported hundreds of kilometres for analysis,” Lefebvre said in a release. “That creates predictable delays and unnecessary risks for patients. Northern Ontarians deserve the same level of care and reliability as anyone else in this province, and this decision puts that at risk.”

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LifeLabs has said patient specimen collection sites in Sudbury will remain open, but samples will be transported elsewhere for processing. The company said the decision is part of a broader effort to streamline operations and manage rising costs, but it is not a reduction in patient demand.

The company has three collection sites in Sudbury, located on Lasalle Boulevard, Long Lake Road and Larch Street.

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The Greater Sudbury laboratory, meanwhile, processes diagnostic samples from other communities in northeastern Ontario, including Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, and rural areas along Highway 11. Lefebvre said the closure will have serious consequences for patients who rely on fast and reliable test results, including people living with chronic illness, newborns, residents in long-term care, and those on critical medications.

“At a time when the province is counting on Northern Ontario to support economic growth and critical industries, it makes no sense to weaken access to essential and reliable health services that workers and families depend on,” Lefebvre said.

In addition to the immediate job losses, the closure will reduce the number of trained laboratory professionals in Northern Ontario and disrupt student placements, further straining an already pressured health workforce.

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The mayor said he has written to Health Minister Sylvia Jones, urging the provincial government to work with LifeLabs to preserve local laboratory capacity where possible, ensure test turnaround times meet clinical needs, and protect both current jobs and future workforce development.

Jones’ office said it will not intervene in LifeLabs’ decision to shutter its lab.

“Life Labs, not the Ministry of Health, is responsible for their own service delivery and operations — we are not involved in those decisions; however, we have been assured there will be no impact to service delivery,” Ema Popovic, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, told The Star.

Popovic said the government of Premier Doug Ford is working to “grow our health care workforce across the sector, in every corner of the province. We are adding 700 more educational seats for healthcare professionals in Ontario’s colleges and universities, including medical laboratory technologists. We have expanded the Learn and Stay grant, which covers the tuition and educational expenses for students in a health care program in exchange for a term of work in their area of study, to include medical laboratory technologists. Nearly 3,800 learners have already received funding through the grant to help pay for their postsecondary education.”

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Popovic did not elaborate on how these new seats will improve care in Northern Ontario and Greater Sudbury. She said the province has also “expanded six new collection sites to make it more convenient for northern and rural communities to get lab tests closer to home.”

She did not answer follow-up questions regarding the location of the six new sites, or how they will enhance care for northerners.

“Our government has also established As of Right rules for health care professionals, including lab technologists, which allows professionals registered in other jurisdictions to begin to practice in Ontario immediately, helping increase access to care across Ontario, including in rural and northern communities.”

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She did not indicate where the lab technologists will work once the labs have been closed.

Sudbury MPP Jamie West said he and Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas are monitoring the situation.

“The closing of LifeLabs in Sudbury is concerning for multiple reasons, concerns we raised repeatedly with the government in the fall,” West said on Facebook. “It means job losses for our community, and for 40 people and their families, a really challenging time. It is yet another example of an American company coming in and buying up a service Canadians rely on.”

New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics announced in July 2024 they had acquired LifeLabs.

“It means potential delays and worse health outcomes for those awaiting testing if samples age out while they have to be shipped all the way to Toronto,” West continued. “Highways close, inclement weather happens, and northerners should not have to pay the consequences of a company trying to increase their profits.”

LifeLabs says it is Canada’s leading provider of laboratory diagnostic services that helps patients and healthcare practitioners diagnose, treat, monitor, and prevent diseases. The company says it operates extensively across the country, running 16 laboratories and more than 380 patient service centres in British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

The company says it employs more than 6,500 professionally trained staff, including phlebotomists, lab technicians, couriers, and medical experts.

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