Thunder Bay collection centre was shut down in 2012

THUNDER BAY -- About a year after it sent a business plan to the provincial and federal governments with a proposal for opening as many as 40 new plasma collection centres, the agency that manages Canada's blood supply says details are still being worked on.

Canadian Blood Services operated a plasma collection centre in Thunder Bay until 2012. When it shut down the facility, it cited a surplus of plasma in the system.

According to a Globe and Mail report in 2017, the CBS business plan included $855 million in funding over seven years to increase the amount of plasma it collects from unpaid donors to make medications.

In an emailed response to an inquiry from tbnewswatch.com, a spokesperson for the agency said Monday it continues working with governments "to identify appropriate next steps to increase the amount of plasma we collect...within our existing, voluntary, non-remunerated, publicly-funded collections model, to manufacture immune globulin (Ig) for Canadian patients."

The statement said there are growing global risks to the security of the supply of plasma for making Ig, including growth in demand in Canada, advances in medicine which may further increase demand, and new markets such as Asia and Europe where use is expected to increase.

As yet there is no word on which communities CBS may have identified for the expansion project.

Saying it is too early to discuss locations, the CBS statement added "Much as we would like to be able to operate sites in every community with an interest in supporting us, there are many factors to consider as we strive to deliver blood and blood products...in the most efficient way possible."

In 2012, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union questioned why CBS said it no longer needed Thunder Bay's 10,000-yearly donations, when it was purchasing plasma from the United States.

The union represented 28 people who worked at the Thunder Bay facility.

OPSEU said at the time that if there was a plasma surplus, the centre should have been idled just temporarily until demand rose again.