Sudbury, Ont., hospital memo reassures staff about current CEO and former Laurentian University president
CBC
The Sudbury, Ont., Health Sciences North (HSN) hospital board sent a memo to employees and medical staff last week to assure them the hospital is in good financial health.
The memo came in the wake of a scathing report from Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk about Laurentian University, which detailed poor management and a lack of transparency from 2010 to 2020, which led to the institution's insolvency in 2021.
From April 2009 to June 2017, Dominic Giroux was Laurentian's president. In 2017 he became the president and CEO of HSN, and has remained in that role since then.
"We would imagine this situation has raised some questions for you on HSN and HSNRI's (Health Sciences North Research Institute) financial health given Dominic Giroux is a former president at Laurentian University," the memo to employees and medical staff said.
"We want to take a moment to provide some reassurance to you on our sound financial position, and convey our extraordinary confidence in Dominic Giroux as our president and CEO."
The memo said that since Giroux joined the hospital its cash position, working capital net assets and long-term debt have all improved.
"When Dominic Giroux took over five years ago, HSN was incurring a deficit of $1 million per month," the memo said.
"HSN incurred a surplus from hospital operations of $1.8 million in 2018-19, $0.3 million in 2019-20, $2.9 million in 2020-21 and $1.9 million in 2021-22."
The memo added that Giroux "has done an excellent job" co-chairing the pandemic response for the health sector in northern Ontario.
"We are fully confident in the job Dominic has done as CEO - a job that was recently validated by being chosen by his peers to be the chair of the Ontario Hospital Association at a time of great challenge in Ontario's health care sector," it said.
In her special report on Laurentian, the auditor general put the primary blame for the university's financial collapse on a failed "build it and they will come" philosophy.
That started with what Lysyk called a poorly planned and costly capital expansion at a time in 2010 when the university was already facing financial difficulties.
From 2009-10 to 2019-20, Laurentian pursued six major capital projects that cost $168 million, including building the East Residence, a cardiovascular and metabolic research lab, the school of architecture, and campus modernization without adequate evidence or analysis to justify the investments.
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