Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer is retiring.
In a statement to the media, Dr. David Williams says he was first appointed to the role for an interim basis on July 1st, 2015, but that became permanent February 16th of the next year.
In the fall of 2020, he was persuaded to postpone his long-planned retirement to stay on to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, to which he advised the government of his plans to retire by the summer of 2021.
Dr. Williams says it has been an honour to serve the people of Ontario and guide public health through the worst public health crisis of our generation. He adds he fully endorses Dr. Kieran Moore as his replacement.
Williams was also Thunder Bay’s Medical Officer of Health from 1991 to 2005, and returned from 2011 to 2015.
Former Mayor Ken Boshcoff tells our newsroom a week of so after he was elected Mayor, Dr. Williams called him and advised the new Thunder Bay mayor to declare a “Boil Water Advisory”, due to cryptosporidium and other possible contaminants in the Loch Lomond water supply.
The former mayor adds that lasted for quite some time, resulting in a unified single-source water supply.
