Businesses given thumbs-up for their safety measures
More than 400 inspections conducted by public health since Stage 2 began
Niagara Region Public Health has conducted more than 400 inspections in a whirlwind two-and-a-half weeks since the province permitted more businesses and services to open.
Region inspectors have always overseen the health and safety requirements at restaurants, public swimming pools, salons, tattoo parlours and beaches — but they don’t normally open all at once.
“The 19th to the first of July was really busy,” said Anthony Habjan, acting director of the municipality’s environmental health division, which has 26 public health inspectors and five team leads.
Habjan said inspectors have found that operators in the region are doing a really good job overall and are taking health and safety seriously.
He said many operators are taking initiative to go to the public health website where there are resources for reopening businesses including checklists, documentation, recommendations and requirements to help them prepare.
While inspectors are focused on regulations and meeting requirements when it comes to infection
control for individual types of premises, he said owners have been asking for additional help and guidance related to COVID-19.
“There’s a lot of good questions and conversation from the operators that are welcoming these inspections to kind of say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing, does this make sense? I got your resources from online, how does this look?’ ” he said.
“There’s a lot of collaborative work there between the inspector and the operators to make sure things are looking good. That’s been a positive to see for us too, as opposed to going in and getting push back. It just makes things easier.” Region inspectors never stopped doing their jobs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for operations that were open.
During Stage 1, that meant a priority on long-term-care and retirement homes, as well as restaurants that offered takeout. When the province allowed Niagara to enter Stage 2 on June 19, several businesses and amenities that had been ordered closed could reopen with COVID-19 safety measures in place.
That’s meant the department has been much busier.
Restaurants must undergo health and safety inspections but weren’t required to have a special one before they could reopen patios.
Pools and spas, though, required inspections before reopening because they had been closed for more than 60 days and inspectors needed to check if the chemistry was up-to-date, if water was clear and if there was sufficient disinfection for people going in, among other concerns.
Habjan said there are about 350 recreational pools and spas in the region because many hotels have them.
About 250 requests came in at once.
“We got an influx of openings and people wanted to open their pools. We had to now somehow operationalize it and risk assess how we’re going to conduct these inspections and still do food inspections,” he said.
Habjan said, fortunately, not all pool operators were expecting to open right away and the health department has been able to meet demand.
Beaches also had to be tested before reopening.
Under normal circumstances, there are 3,200 businesses that health inspectors check yearly, with 2,700 being food establishments. Last year, the department did more than 13,000 inspections. Results can be found at niagararegion.ca/ health/inspect.
“People can take a look, know that we’re out there and make informed decisions,” Habjan said.
“Know that inspectors are out there conducting these inspections to make sure these are safe for the public to go to.” Karena Walter is a St. Catharinesbased reporter, primarily covering city hall for the Standard. Reach her via email: karena.walter@niagaradailies.com