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Tag: Ontario

Video | Questions about plans to axe Ontario’s wastewater monitoring network

During Question Period on June 6, 2024, Jeff Burch, MPP for Niagara Centre, asked some questions about the Ford government’s plans to eliminate Ontario’s wastewater monitoring program: “[…] with a serious gap in the federal government’s current ability to test wastewater in Ontario, why would this government abruptly cut this extremely low cost but highly valuable program?”

The government’s response was misleading. “The program is continuing through an expanded option with the federal government,” said Andrea Khanjin, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

That’s not actually true. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is not taking over the program. The Ontario government is planning to shut the existing extensive program that has been developed over years, with 58+ monitoring stations and expert researchers at 13 Ontario universities. In its place, there will be a much more limited network operated by PHAC, covering just five cities in Ontario.

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Ontario’s wastewater testing program to be replaced by a federal program that is significantly smaller

When Ontario’s wastewater surveillance program is shut down next month it will be replaced by a significantly smaller federal program. That potential information gap worries some researchers and public health experts, especially at a time when COVID-19 cases are starting to tick up and avian influenza is spreading rapidly.

Ontario’s wastewater testing initiative, considered a world leader, currently tests wastewater for signs of infectious diseases including COVID, influenza, RSV and more at 58 locations across the province. The provincial government plans to pull the plug on the program at the end of July, saying it wants to avoid duplication with an expanding pan-Canadian wastewater surveillance program.

That new federal program includes plans to conduct wastewater surveillance in five Ontario cities. Four of the five cities have not yet been selected.

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Small towns likely to be big losers when Ontario stops monitoring wastewater, expert says

Small towns and rural communities are likely to see the biggest impact when the province stops paying scientists to monitor wastewater for COVID-19 and other illnesses, an expert says.

Also likely to suffer is the scientific community’s ability to learn from rich, robust data that is currently being collected but won’t be after the provincial surveillance program wraps up at the end of July, said Chris deGroot, the lead researcher at the Western University lab that monitors the wastewater in this region.

“It’s safe to assume that with the transition to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), there will be a reduction in the total number of sites and that we’re most likely going to see the sites be in larger urban centres,” deGroot said.

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Ontario is a ‘world leader’ in wastewater surveillance for COVID. The province’s decision to close testing sites will end that, experts say

Researchers are warning that Ontario’s decision to shut down its wastewater surveillance program that proved crucial in tracking COVID-19 will limit the province’s ability to rapidly respond to infectious disease threats, including new COVID variants, respiratory viruses and bird flu.

A key member of the waterwater surveillance program says Ontario has been a “world leader and now we’ll probably be one of the passengers” by the scale-back that will also stifle research.

Cancelling the provincial surveillance system — the largest in Canada — will drastically reduce the number of testing sites in the province, experts say. They also caution that shuttering the program will mean that monitoring may no longer take place in smaller communities and in rural and northern areas, potentially missing vulnerable populations.

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Radio | Peterborough Medical Officer of Health frustrated with the province’s decision to pullback on waste water monitoring

Medical officer of health for Peterborough Public Health, Dr. Thomas Piggott talks with host Molly Thomas about why he believes we shouldn’t drop wastewater testing for diseases — even if COVID-19 is not the same threat it was when the program was rolled out.

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‘I was shocked’: Ontario to cancel widely used wastewater surveillance program

The Ontario government is shutting down the wastewater surveillance program that has provided early warning for incoming waves of COVID-19 and a growing list of other infectious diseases since it was developed.

By the time it ends on July 31, the program that got its start in Ottawa early in the pandemic will be one of the biggest in the world to monitor the spread of infectious diseases through wastewater. Researchers were told of the decision to end funding last week.

Its closure comes at a time when COVID-19 is again beginning to spread through the world after a lull and when the United States and other countries are ramping up wastewater surveillance programs to warn about the possible spread of H5N1 avian influenza.

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Ontario: Protect our health — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!

📣 Let MPPs know you want funding for Ontario’s wastewater monitoring program to continue

✉️ Send letters to MPPs to voice your support for wastewater monitoring. Use our online tool to send emails.

Why take action? Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in Ontario’s communities.

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Ontario: Call Members of Provincial Parliament on #WastewaterWednesday!

📣 Take action! Let MPPs know you want funding for Ontario’s wastewater monitoring program to continue

📱 Call MPPs to voice your support for wastewater monitoring.

✉️ Use our online tool to send letters to MPPs.

✉️ Use our online tool to send emails to municipal councillors in Ottawa or Waterloo Region.

📸 Post photos on social media.

Why take action? Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in Ontario’s communities.

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Video | Feds to stop providing free COVID-19 rapid tests

The federal government, which spent billions on COVID-19 rapid tests during the height of the pandemic, says it will stop supplying provinces and territories with those tests. Heidi Petracek explains the move, and the reaction from some provinces and doctors.

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Ontario sees first measles death in more than a decade after young child dies

A young child has died of measles in Ontario, marking the first death in the province from the highly contagious virus in more than 10 years, a Public Health Ontario report confirms.

The child, who was under the age of five, was not immunized against the virus, according to the report, which was published on Thursday.

The report also confirms this is the first measles death in the province in more than a decade.

Public Health Ontario says that there have been 22 confirmed cases of measles reported in the province in 2024. Of those individuals, 13 were children and nine were adults. Four of the adults were previously immunized, two were unimmunized, and two had an unknown immunization status.

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Number of Ontario measles cases nears 10-year high as Peel Region confirms new case

Health officials in Peel Region have confirmed a Mississauga resident has contracted measles, as the total number of cases in the province approaches a 10-year high.

In a news release on Tuesday, Peel Public Health confirmed its second case of measles this year. Officials did not disclose how the man got infected but provided locations where the public may have been exposed.

Those who were at Silver Creek Convenience and Health Care Medical Clinic on May 10 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., as well as Trillium Health Partners Mississauga Site Emergency Room at 9:15 a.m. on May 10 and 6:15 p.m. on May 11, are being advised to contact Peel Public Health at 905-799-7700 immediately.

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Risk of wildfire smoke in Ottawa low — for now: Environment Canada

Smoke from wildfires in Western Canada will soon be drifting high overhead, but it poses no health risk in Eastern Ontario, says Environment Canada.

“Taking a look at our guidance and the weather patterns this week and the way things are panning out, it doesn’t look like Eastern Ontario needs to be concerned about its air quality at this time,” Trudy Kidd, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Monday.

“At best, people might see some haze in the skies in the coming days as the forest fire smoke makes its way through and disperses aloft, but from what we can tell at this time, the particulate matter — and that’s what’s of concern when it comes to forest fires — we’re expecting it to stay aloft,” she said.

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Ontario will need tens of thousands of nurses and PSWs by 2032: document

Ontario will need 33,200 more nurses and 50,853 more personal support workers by 2032, the government projects — figures it tried to keep secret but were obtained by The Canadian Press.

The government recently won a fight in front of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to keep those figures under wraps after denying access to them to Global News following a freedom-of-information request from the outlet.

But the same FOI office made the information available to The Canadian Press through a separate request, a situation critics say exposes the frailties and arbitrariness of the access-to-information system.

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Wildfire smoke could move into Ottawa, eastern Ontario tonight

Wildfires in western Canada will likely bring smoke into Ottawa and eastern Ontario starting on Monday and into Tuesday morning.

CTV’s Your Morning chief meteorologist Kelsey McEwen says smoke could travel as far as Quebec City by Tuesday morning with air quality advisories being issued in five provinces.

“You can see the Jetstream pulling that smoke down south of the border through the Dakotas and back up through the Great Lakes,” McEwen said.

“By tomorrow, this begins to slide toward the Ottawa-Gatineau area, tomorrow morning and out toward Quebec City.”

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Convoy leader Pat King heads to trial

One of the most polarizing figures to gain notoriety during what became known as the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa more than two years ago will stand trial Monday, signalling the tail end of criminal proceedings that have dogged hundreds of individuals who participated in the historic protest.

Pat King, from Red Deer, Alta., is facing charges of mischief, intimidation, obstructing police, disobeying a court order and other offences for his role in the protest that gridlocked downtown for nearly a month in early 2022.

Arrested and jailed for five months before his release that summer, King is unlikely to serve more time behind bars if he is found guilty, given laws around credit from time served.

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Family doctor group calls for Ontario health minister’s resignation over ‘slap in the face’ comments

The Union of Family Physicians of Ontario (OUFP) is calling for the resignation of Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones after the Ministry of Health suggested recruitment and retention of doctors in Ontario is “not a major concern.”

The group said the comments from the ministry are “insensitive and dangerous” during a period in which family medicine is in crisis.

The ministry made the argument as part of arbitration with the Ontario Medical Association over physician compensation.

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