Closure of Lifelabs in Sudbury highlights need for service to be provided through public system, critics argue<\/p>\n
Published Feb 04, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 2\u00a0days ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 2 minute read<\/p>\n
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Health-care advocates are calling on the province to restore outpatient lab testing in public hospitals following news that LifeLabs will close its Sudbury operations.<\/p>\n
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The Ontario Health Coalition noted LifeLabs is a profitable company that was bought last year by Quest Diagnostics, with year-end net revenues for 2025 projected to reach almost $11 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is the latest in the consolidation of the for-profit \u2018market\u2019 for community laboratory work in Ontario,\u201d the coalition said in a release.<\/p>\n
Community laboratory work handles specimens ordered by family doctors and other community health-care professionals, while inpatient laboratory work is done in public hospitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunity medical laboratory work used to be done in the public, non-profit hospital system,\u201d noted Ross Sutherland, who apart from being chair of the OHC is an expert on the history of community laboratories in Canada. \u201cOver the decades successive provincial governments have privatized that work to for-profit laboratories.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Now almost all Ontario\u2019s community medical laboratory work is done by two subsidiaries of American multinational corporations, said Sutherland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the purchase of LifeLabs by multi billion-dollar company Quest Diagnostics, the new owners have started to cut services in Ontario, threatening quality patient care and laying off 40 skilled laboratory technicians in Sudbury,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sutherland is a retired nurse and author of False Positive: Private Profit in Canada\u2019s Medical Laboratories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He noted that the private lab companies are paid by the provincial government based on a fee-for-service per test. They are paid from public taxes, regardless of whether or not they close local laboratories.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEssentially, the public is paying for the testing, whether or not they close down local laboratory sites,\u201d said Sutherland. \u201cThis is one of the many flaws in the deal that successive provincial governments have forged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, said Lifelabs has failed in its responsibility to provide good health care in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe province must step in, remove LifeLabs from collecting and analyzing community laboratory work in the Near North and integrate that work with the local and provincial hospital system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sutherland pointed out community medical laboratories are the sole responsibility of the provincial government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe province has a transfer agreement with LifeLabs that, if it follows the template, contains a clause for termination without cause,\u201d he said. \u201cTransferring the community laboratory work to local hospitals will also provide a more integrated service, strengthen community hospitals and improve quality.\u201d<\/p>\n