LifeLabs strike highlights risks of foreign ownership in Canadian health care

Foreign ownership could amplify existing issues with privatization

By Maddi Dellplain, April 30 2025

The months-long strike at British Columbia’s LifeLabs has raised questions about foreign ownership of medical services and Canadians’ health data.

American-owned Quest Diagnostics purchased LifeLabs in August 2024 from OMERS, a jointly owned pension fund company, for CDN $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 B.C. Health Coalition (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.”

Quest is a multi-billion-dollar diagnostic information services company with operations across the globe. It reported more than USD $2.6 billion in revenue for the last quarter alone and is projected to earn $10.7 billion in revenue for 2025.

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