WAHA Job Board
2025-216 Director of Regional Harm Reduction
Moosonee, Ontario, Canada .
full-time . June 3, 2025
Description
Title: Director of Regional Harm Reduction
Division: Leadership
Affiliation: Non-Unionized
Site: Moosonee, ON
Reports to: Associate Vice President of Health Promotion and Community Wellness
Status: Permanent Full-Time
The Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) is seeking an experienced leader to fill the key role of Director of Regional Harm Reduction.
Life at WAHA
A beacon of healing, wellness, and innovation, WAHA connects remote communities with the care they deserve. With spellbinding views surrounding each site, team members bask in the tranquility of the land, juxtaposed against a bustling workplace busy addressing the complex needs of the region. Here, we work with purpose, knowing each action matters. Patients are neighbours, family, and colleagues. Each day brings a challenge- the good kind that stretches you, helps you grow, and makes you feel vital. These hurdles birth opportunities to problem solve, develop new skills, and explore new roles. Here, we step into a version of ourselves once forgotten, overshadowed by the daily grind, and rediscover a deep connection with ourselves, the land, and each other. Here, we experience work with wonder. #WeAreWAHA
What We Do
There has never been a more exciting time to be at WAHA. We are an integrated health system providing the full continuum of care to the six communities of the western James Bay coast with over 500 employees, physicians, and partners in care. As a health authority, you will work in a unique setting where you have the opportunity to care for patients in all phases of their life journey, in all areas of their health experience. From Primary, Acute, and Mental Health, Dental, Specialty Clinics, Population Health and the WAHA Paramedic Service, the opportunities for growth are boundless. We provide community-based programming in all six of our communities, have six paramedic bases, three hospitals, four emergency departments, one community health centre and a total of 72 beds. Our guiding goal is to be a centre of excellence in Indigenous and remote healthcare. To make this goal a reality, we have formed partnerships with other centres of excellence to remove barriers and eliminate the inequity of health services access that have long impacted the patients that we serve.
At WAHA, we are leading the way in health transformation. Come and immerse yourself in the local Cree culture, work with dedicated and passionate colleagues, and live in beautiful northern communities with amazing community members. Our mission is to provide optimum healthcare as close to home as possible. You can be part of this rewarding experience. Come and find your adventure in the north.
Who You Are
- A champion of positive change management and making a difference for underserved populations
- Demonstrates high emotional intelligence, integrity and accountability
- Action-oriented with a track record of achievement
- Leads self by demonstrating self-awareness, managing and developing themselves, and demonstrating character
- Engages others by fostering their development, contributing to healthy organizations, communicating effectively, and builds teams
- Achieves results by setting direction, strategically aligning decisions with vision, values, and evidence, takes action to implement decisions, and assesses and evaluates
- Develops coalitions by purposefully building partnerships and networks to create results, demonstrates a commitment to customer service, mobilizes knowledge to navigate socio-political environments
- Engages in system transformation by demonstrating system and critical thinking, encouraging and supporting innovation, orienting themselves strategically to the future, and championing and orchestrating change
What You’ll Do
- Liaise and collaborate with community leadership, community members, external stakeholders and WAHA departmental leads as required in the development of harm reduction priorities and culturally relevant initiatives
- Build harm reduction best practices into harm reduction strategies and initiatives with high level knowledge and understanding of undoing the harms of colonialism through decolonized and Indigenous approaches to harm reduction that reconnects people and communities to culture
- Participate in relevant research and consultative services for harm reduction, situational analysis, policy/ guideline clarification
- Lead partnerships with communities, Northeastern Public Health, and Indigenous Service Canada to support programming that is responsive to community needs and priorities
- Develop and implement a harm reduction strategies and initiatives that are culturally relevant and respectful of regional traditional practices that are grounded in supporting Indigenous communities
- Participates in building trending tools and reports in collaboration with the Minomathasowin and ICES teams to monitor and analyze program key performance indicators and outcomes
- Establish positive and supportive working relationships with regional community leadership, public health, health directors and other partners
What You Bring
- Baccalaureate Degree in Public Health and/or Nursing from an accredited University or regulated health professional
- Consideration may be given to an equivalent combination of education and experience
- Familiarity with public health programs and services as they apply to First Nations communities (local, federal and provincial)
- Knowledge of WAHA's organizational mandate, mission, goals and policies
- Valid “G” class Driver’s License
- Ability to communicate in the local native Cree language is an asset
Why Choose Us
- Competitive Base Salary
- Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan
- Group health, welfare, and Employee and Family Assistance Program Benefits
- Relocation paid by the organization
- Housing provided by the organization
- Annual retention bonus, a northern living allowance, and vacation travel bonus (all pensionable earnings)
- Be part of an organization leading health transformation in the remote north
- Ability to work with a purpose, connected to an amazing community and culture, with opportunities to learn and grow
How to Apply
The successful candidate must provide a valid Criminal Record Check within a specified time frame.
Please apply in writing, providing three recent work references, quoting Competition# 2025-216 by no later than Tuesday, June 17th, 2025 at 12:00 noon:
- For more information contact the HR team by email: jobs@waha.ca
- Only those selected for an interview will be contacted
- Please be advised that in order to be eligible for employment at Weeneebayko Area Health Authority, all new hires must have received the full series of a COVID-19 vaccine or combination of COVID-19 vaccines approved by Health Canada
Weeneebayko Area Health Authority is an inclusive employer. Accommodations are available in accordance with the Ontario Human Rights code and Accessibility of Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005.