Northern Ontario School of Medicine Must Have Support of Ontario Government
Submitted by Jim Gordon, Ken Boshcoff, and Angele Brunelle,
Gravely concerned about the future sustainability of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) was established as a solution to the doctor shortage in the North. It was set up as a stand-alone legal entity and maintains independent finances, administration and its own Board of Directors.
Yet, this proven strategy still relies on Laurentian University and Lakehead University to grant its degrees.
In light of what is happening at Laurentian University, why isn’t the Government taking measures to protect NOSM and ensure that it continues to thrive as an independent, viable medical school in the North?
As champions in establishing NOSM, we recall the momentum across the entirety of the North to come together and build a solution to healthcare disparities from which future generations would benefit.
There was an emergence of widespread political and Indigenous organization support for the notion of creating the new medical school. Since this time, NOSM has developed partnerships with over 90 communities in Northern Ontario in an award-winning distributed learning model that connects our vast region.
It has produced 714 MDs, and 579 residents who have completed NOSM programs with more than half of these healthcare professionals practicing in the North.
NOSM develops its own curriculum, is accountable for its own accreditation, has its own faculty, recruits its own students – by all counts, NOSM is our medical university for the North.
So why is its fate limited by the formality of its construct?
None of us would have predicted this situation when NOSM was founded sixteen years ago but we cannot sit idle watching a critical health-care strategy be derailed because it is not truly autonomous.
We know that the government must recognize the positive impact NOSM has had across Northern Ontario. We call upon the government to step in and grant NOSM university status so it may thrive in its social accountability mandate and address the critical health disparities in the North.
About the Authors
Jim Gordon is both the former Mayor of the City of Greater Sudbury and Member of Provincial Parliament for Sudbury and Minister of Government Services. Gordon served as the former Chair of the Implementation Management Committee which provided the business and budget plan to set up NOSM. In 2014, Gordon was named a Member of the Order of Canada.
Ken Boshcoff is the former Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay – Rainy River and Mayor of Thunder Bay. He has also served as the President of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and President of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA).
Angèle Brunelle serves as the Executive Director for L’Accueil francophone de Thunder Bay. She has dedicated her life promoting northwest Ontario’s Francophone community, advocating for Francophone rights in health and education sectors.
