BC’s LifeLabs Strike Highlights the Risks of Foreign Ownership

American-owned Quest Diagnostics purchased LifeLabs in August 2024 from OMERS, a jointly owned pension fund company, for $1.35 billion. LifeLabs’ B.C. workers, who have been without a contract since last April, have been on strike since Feb. 16.

Ayendri Riddell, director of policy and campaigns with the BC Health Coalition, or BCHC, says the fact that such a large part of Canada’s health infrastructure is owned by a massive foreign company is cause for concern.

“As a company they’re not accountable to the Canadian workforce or to our health-care system and our patients,” she says. “It doesn’t seem like their striking conditions are having much of an impact on Quest.”