Ward 8 Councillor John-Paul Danko took to social media this afternoon, took a swipe at the members of Hamilton’s new public health sub-committee, and missed.
At 4:35 p.m., Danko posted to X:
“The request for a semi-autonomous Board of Health (made last term) is good news for #HamOnt
Interestingly, a provincially mandated Board of Health will have provincial appointees who will certainly bring different perspectives than recent City appointees”
Danko is incorrect, Bill 231 states Hamilton City Council appoints all members. There will be no provincial appointees.
Bill 231, [the] More Convenient Care Act, amends the City of Hamilton Act to permit a semi-autonomous Board of Health.
(The City of Hamilton Act presently designates council as the Board of Health.)
The Bill states:
(3) Despite subsections 49 (1) and (3) of the Health Protection and Promotion Act, all of the members of the board shall be appointed by the city.
The composition of the new Board has been determined by Council.
When Bill 231 is proclaimed, the Public Health Sub-Committee will become Hamilton’s Board of Health.
(One of the 13 members is John-Paul Danko’s spouse, Ward 7 public school board Trustee Dawn Danko.)
Provincial Appointees Exist for Public Health Board that Serve Multiple Upper-Tier Municipalities and Regions
Hamilton, Ottawa, and Toronto are single-tier municipalities with public health departments governed by a Board of Health.
The Greater Golden Horseshoe Area upper-tier municipalities have regional public health departments, and the regional council exercises Board of Health authorities.
In the rest of Ontario, public health units are governed by Health Unit Boards with mixed memberships that include provincial appointees.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: December 5, 2024
Last updated: December 5, 2024
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
Excellent observation Joey I will say of Councillor Danko’s remarks. That being said, perhaps Danko actually meant, for all intents and purposes, by the term “provincial appointees”, any community member that Hamilton city council actually officially does appoint as one could argue that any community member is a provincial citizen afterall. So if city council did officially appoint a citizen to the BoH and it was found out by the province this citizen say had a criminal record, whatever, perhaps the Province could intervene and reject the appointment. I don’t know. Maybe all appointees are actually vetted in some manner by the Province in the end. Don’t know. I guess Councillor Danko would have to comment on this.