Ottawa Public Health wants to collaborate with local partners to look for ways to continue wastewater monitoring after the province cuts funding to the program next month.

At its meeting this week, the city’s board of health passed a motion directing Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches to write to provincial and federal partners to find ways to continue the wastewater testing work that’s being done at the University of Ottawa.

Earlier this month, Ontario announced that by the end of July, it will scrap the program for sampling wastewater to monitor levels of COVID-19 in the population. The program began in 2020 and is funded through the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks.

But researchers in Ottawa have been using wastewater monitoring to check for other infectious diseases including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, MPox and measles.

Robert Delatolla, a professor and wastewater researcher at the U of O, said hospitals including CHEO use the data to prepare for surges in infectious diseases and initiate preventative measures.

Delatolla said once the program is transferred to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), data will only be reported monthly. He said that won’t allow hospitals to plan accordingly.