Plasma donation centre returning to Thunder Bay

A new plasma donor centre is opening in Thunder Bay, Ont., in early 2025, according to Canadian Blood Services (CBS). 

Construction is starting this week on the new donor centre, which will be operating out of a leased property in the Thunder Centre.

"In 2012, we closed our local centre in response to a significant decline in the use of plasma for transfusion at hospitals across the country," said CBS in an emailed statement. "However, more than a decade later, the landscape has shifted. Today, health systems in Canada and abroad continue to see a steady rise in the need for plasma to make a different kind of lifesaving product: immunoglobulins."

CBS told CBC News it was unable to provide an interview at time of publication.

Plasma is a protein-dense liquid component in blood, which can be used for transfusion and to make medications like immunoglobulins. Many of the medications produced are the only treatment option for thousands of Canadians with life-threatening conditions, including immunodeficiency, autoimmune and neurological disorders, said the statement. 

CBS previously opened a plasma centre in Thunder Bay in 1996, but shut it down in 2012 due to an excess in plasma supply. All 28 employees lost their jobs. The union representing the employees voiced concern about CBS's plans to buy plasma from sources in the United States the same year it shut down the Thunder Bay donor centre.

CBS also stopped holding mobile blood donor clinics in Thunder Bay in 2012. CBS officials have previously told CBC that the clinics were too expensive to run in Thunder Bay. With the nearest permanent blood collection and processing facility in Winnipeg, it was also challenging to get the blood from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg soon enough.

CBS stopped holding clinics in Fort Frances in October 2014 and in Dryden in May 2015. Kenora, which was the last clinic in northwestern Ontario accepting blood donations, also closed in December 2017.

In 2022, CBS said it was taking efforts to secure access to immunoglobulins "in response to an ongoing global shortage of immunoglobulins and risks to cross-border supply chains made further evident by the pandemic." 

This includes paying for plasma — CBS has partnered with a private Spanish company to operate clinics that pay people to donate plasma. Three Ontario clinics are being opened in the next year in Cambridge, Whitby and Hamilton.

CBS operates eight plasma donor centres in Kelowna and Abbotsford, B.C., Lethbridge, Brampton, Ottawa, St. Catharines, Sudbury and Vaughan. It plans to open three more in 2024 including in Windsor.