The high number of special events in Ottawa that require food inspections is leaving the city’s public health department stretched.
According to a report tabled at Monday’s board of health meeting — the final one before the next term of council is sworn in on Dec. 1 — Ottawa Public Health is on track to meet most of the provincial targets for 2014 as set by the Public Health Funding and Accountability Agreement.
But the department says there might be “challenges” with meeting two indicators related to inspections of food premises due to “constrained” public health inspection dollars.
In addition to regular duties, food inspectors here must conduct 1,000 inspections at 90 special events in the city, such as the Ottawa Food and Wine Festival, yet the department receives no additional provincial funding to do so.
The ministry target calls for 98.4 per cent of high-risk establishments to be inspected every four months, but Ottawa is falling short of this in the third quarter of 2014. A high-risk food establishment is one that handles and prepares large amounts of hazardous foods, such as poultry, fish and beef, that are often involved in food-borne illnesses.
The department has been relying on overtime and temporary staff reallocations to address the issue in the short term, but it says a longer term fix is needed.
That prompted board members, one of whom called the provincial funding “lamentable”, to endorse a plan to write Ontario’s minister of health to request detailed information on the funding formulas for Ontario public health units, beyond the per capita funding they receive.
A subsequent report tabled at the meeting suggested the public health unit’s “long range financial plan is under significant pressure” due to the growing number of provincially-mandated targets it must meet, combined with “unprecedented compensation pressures” and an urgent need to replace aging technology.
“To address the shortfall, OPH will continue to appeal to the province for equitable base funding at a level that is no less than the provincial average,” the report said.
The board is also pushing for more local control over setting local speed limits in an effort to reduce pedestrian and cyclist injuries and fatalities.
It moved to send a letter to Ontario’s minister of transportation with a request to amend the Highway Traffic Act to allow municipalities to set their own default speed limits or, as an alternative, to set default speed limits with limited signage at the entrances to residential communities.
Monday’s meeting was also the final one Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes presided over as chair. She is retiring at the end of the month.
Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar made a special visit to pay tribute to the longtime councillor.
