Western Standard - September 16, 2023


ALBERTA： Update on the E. coli outbreak in Calgary


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

131.22781

Word Count

5,288

Sentence Count

153


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Dr. Kelly provides an update on the E. coli outbreak that has sickened more than 337 people and affected 11 daycares across the province since mid-August. She also provides a temporary closure of a daycare centre linked to the outbreak.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
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00:07:30.000 good morning everyone before i provide my update i would like to address a response
00:07:50.960 to a question posed when i appeared before you earlier in the week
00:07:54.720 to our medical officers of health to our wonderful physicians nurses and lab staff
00:08:03.360 everyone has worked tirelessly to look after and protect patients and families and to get to the
00:08:10.320 bottom of what happened here as a physician i can tell you that there's nothing more difficult
00:08:17.600 than seeing sick kids you want to do everything that you possibly can to look after them
00:08:24.720 help them get well my focus and the focus of everyone involved in this
00:08:31.440 situation is to help these kids get better and to ensure that no other child
00:08:36.840 goes through what they are going through this is my commitment to all of
00:08:41.960 you this situation remains very serious however we're somewhat heartened by the
00:08:50.280 fact that it appears that the number of patients in hospital has stabilized over
00:08:55.680 the last couple of days. As of today, a total of 337 lab-confirmed cases have
00:09:03.800 been reported in connection with this E. coli outbreak. There are currently 12
00:09:09.460 patients receiving care in hospital. This is encouraging as it's a decrease of 8
00:09:15.300 compared with two days ago. Lastly, 10 patients have hemolytic uremic syndrome
00:09:21.300 and six are receiving dialysis at Alberta Children's Hospital. We have also
00:09:27.920 confirmed that there are 26 secondary transmission cases of this E. coli
00:09:33.900 bacteria. This occurs when someone has contact with one of the patients directly
00:09:39.600 linked to the outbreak all are within households already linked to this
00:09:44.840 outbreak this relatively small number of secondary transmissions highlights the
00:09:50.040 fact that the quick response to this outbreak and communication with families
00:09:54.600 has helped to limit the spread I do want to provide an update on one additional
00:10:03.540 positive case of a child from calgary who does not attend one of the implicated daycares
00:10:10.320 i became aware of this positive test result just last night however symptoms had begun
00:10:16.740 in this child over the long weekend in september our staff are investigating a possible link to
00:10:23.560 this outbreak but there's no confirmation that it is directly linked at this point now out of an
00:10:29.460 abundance of caution the affected area of the daycare that this child attends is being temporarily
00:10:35.240 closed. I provide this information this morning just to give the clearest possible picture of
00:10:42.340 this situation. It's also a reminder that it is sadly routine for us to see small numbers of
00:10:50.620 E. coli cases each week even in children and it also highlights just how complex the investigation
00:10:57.980 into this outbreak can be, as each case needs to be thoroughly followed up with linkages determined.
00:11:07.520 It's important for parents to monitor their child for symptoms.
00:11:14.740 If your child is sick, please keep them home.
00:11:19.720 As parents, you know when they need to be seen by a healthcare professional.
00:11:24.220 if you do not have a young child yourself please remind your friends and your family who do it is
00:11:33.260 far better to be safe than sorry and the actions that we take in these situations can make a huge
00:11:39.660 difference to parents dealing with sick children i know how unsettling it can be to hear these
00:11:47.820 statistics knowing the potential impact on your child's health and well-being i want to reassure
00:11:56.220 you that we are on top of this and we are monitoring it very carefully we anticipate
00:12:04.300 that lab confirmed cases of e-coli will continue to increase as test results come back but we are
00:12:11.980 cautiously hopeful that we won't see significantly more children with severe illness i acknowledge
00:12:19.500 though that this is of little relief to the parents of those children who remain in hospital
00:12:26.060 but it may suggest that while we're not completely out of the woods yet
00:12:30.620 we are beginning to see the health impacts of this outbreak start to wane just a bit
00:12:36.220 As some of you will be aware, the closure orders issued for all 11 daycare centers linked
00:12:44.900 to this outbreak have now been rescinded following re-inspections by public health officers.
00:12:50.900 These daycares have addressed the risks and they've met all the requirements under the
00:12:54.920 Public Health Act related to sanitization and safe operations of their facilities.
00:13:00.140 facilities.
00:13:01.660 This includes, but isn't limited to, having supplies of all approved sanitization products
00:13:08.100 in place, guidance for hand washing and sanitization available to all day care staff, and guidance
00:13:15.320 for food handling and service at each facility.
00:13:20.700 In addition, children and staff from facilities with confirmed cases must meet certain requirements
00:13:27.260 including providing negative stool samples before they can return to a daycare ahs has sent letters
00:13:35.020 to all parents outlining these requirements and to provide advice and support these requirements
00:13:42.700 are designed to prevent further transmission effectively preventing this bacteria from
00:13:49.180 spreading it's now up to the operators to decide if they are able and if they wish to reopen
00:13:57.260 Of course, the central kitchen that provided food to these 11 daycares remains indefinitely closed.
00:14:06.500 I acknowledge that there is some concern that this kitchen was able to continue to operate despite public health inspectors identifying a number of violations, both critical and non-critical, at recent inspections.
00:14:19.600 I understand that concern, but I can assure you that there were no delays or gaps in inspecting this facility.
00:14:28.220 every food handling facility in the province is inspected at least once a year
00:14:32.540 that is the standard and the requirement under legislation in the case of this facility
00:14:39.020 it was inspected five times in 2023 directly related to the fact that violations had previously
00:14:46.940 been identified there were concerns about this facility and our public health inspectors more
00:14:52.860 than doubled their visits the last routine inspection of the kitchen happened in late
00:14:58.780 april 2023 two infractions were found at that time and they were corrected by the end of the
00:15:04.860 day by the operator as of the end of april 2023 there were no violations outstanding in this
00:15:12.060 kitchen however three critical violations were identified during the inspection on september
00:15:19.820 the fifth these critical violations were different than the violations that had been identified
00:15:26.620 and previously remediated in april it's important to note that under the public health act
00:15:33.900 ahs does not have the ability to permanently close a food handling facility unless critical
00:15:40.540 violations continue to exist i certainly acknowledge that this is all cold comfort
00:15:47.740 to the parents of children who fell ill i am not trying to make excuses for this operator
00:15:54.300 in any way but the inspectors did their job under the public health act
00:16:01.660 finally i do want to provide a quick update on the investigation into the cause of this outbreak
00:16:06.940 it is frustrating that we don't yet have a definitive answer on what made all of these
00:16:11.740 children sick but as i've mentioned before this is an extremely complex investigation and
00:16:19.900 identifying the exact source and how things unfolded is like trying to find a needle amongst
00:16:27.180 the field of haystacks we know that the source is highly likely to have come from the central kitchen
00:16:35.340 in total 45 food items from the kitchen and daycares have been collected to date and we
00:16:43.580 have received 19 results back from the lab none have tested positive for e-coli additional results
00:16:52.300 for the samples that are remaining are expected within the next few days
00:16:56.820 our investigators continue to talk to patients staff and family members about what they ate
00:17:04.220 and a detailed analysis of the epidemiologic data
00:17:07.980 is also providing us with further clues.
00:17:11.360 We all want answers.
00:17:13.880 And through a methodical, coordinated, and systematic approach,
00:17:17.660 we hope that we'll be able to provide them just as soon as possible.
00:17:21.960 To that end, this investigation continues.
00:17:26.520 I wish to sum up by again expressing my thoughts and concerns
00:17:33.520 to everyone impacted by this outbreak my commitment to you is that we will continue
00:17:42.320 to do everything within our power to help you or your loved ones recover and get better
00:17:50.560 and to do all that we can to ensure that this does not happen again
00:17:56.160 thank you and with that i'd like to invite premier smith to the podium
00:18:02.560 Thank you, Dr. Joffie.
00:18:07.040 Good morning, everyone.
00:18:08.400 I would like to thank Minister of Health, Adriana LaGrange,
00:18:11.320 Minister of Children and Family Services,
00:18:12.920 Dr. Mark Joffie, Chief Medical Officer of Health,
00:18:16.240 Dr. Franco Rizzuti, Medical Officer of Health in the Calgary Zone,
00:18:20.420 and Dr. Tanya Principi,
00:18:22.600 who is the Section Chief for Pediatric Emergency Medicine
00:18:25.060 at Alberta Children's Hospital for joining me here today.
00:18:27.420 I want to provide an update on the E. coli outbreak
00:18:30.220 that has hurt so many kids.
00:18:32.000 What's believed to have happened was a violation of food safety standards in a shared kitchen
00:18:36.940 and undoubtedly a violation of parents' faith in the system.
00:18:41.340 When people entrust their child to someone else, they expect their child will receive the best possible care.
00:18:47.600 Families are watching in anguish, watching their children suffer from a preventable cause.
00:18:52.060 They're enduring extreme stress, afraid of what the outcome will be and how this will affect their child's health.
00:18:57.240 It's unimaginable pain, and I'm heartbroken by what these families are going through.
00:19:27.240 Right now, the most important comfort I can offer is the promise that each sick child is getting the best possible care.
00:19:39.720 And I would just like to thank all of the medical professionals who have been doing everything they can to treat and to heal and to comfort.
00:19:57.240 these children and their families.
00:20:00.700 I know that each affected family and all Albertans want to know what the root cause of the outbreak is.
00:20:05.940 And so do we.
00:20:06.840 At this time, the investigation, as you heard, is continuing.
00:20:09.400 And I know that you will want more specific information and answers,
00:20:12.540 but we must let the investigation continue methodically and safely.
00:20:17.440 I assure you, we will get to the bottom of this.
00:20:20.920 we will identify the cause and we will put in place the necessary measures to ensure this does
00:20:26.840 not happen again. I want to be clear the kitchen believed to be responsible is closed indefinitely
00:20:32.140 as Dr. Jaffe has said and we will have more to say on this subject once the investigation is
00:20:36.580 complete and we've reviewed the findings and while the situation develops I would like to explain
00:20:41.200 how our government is supporting the families harmed by this horrific experience. Families are
00:20:46.380 having a tough time with a lot of disruptions. Some have spent days and nights watching their
00:20:50.980 children in pain in the hospital or sick at home. And we understand that this has put families
00:20:55.400 under a lot of stress and a lot of financial stress. We want to help ease as much of that
00:20:59.480 stress as we can. And that includes the financial strain this has caused due to parents being away
00:21:03.980 from work and caring for their kids. To support all families and children affected by the outbreak
00:21:08.780 in these child care facilities, families will receive a one-time compassionate payment of $2,000
00:21:13.740 Our goal is to get the money to the parents as quickly as we can.
00:21:18.740 We will be sending information on how to apply for assistance shortly.
00:21:22.740 While Alberta's government is providing this financial support,
00:21:25.740 we expect that these child care facilities recognize the hardship that has been caused
00:21:31.740 and reimburse families the fees for the days that children have been spent out of care.
00:21:36.740 This incident obviously sparks worries about the well-being of kids in child care programs.
00:21:41.740 programs. It's our top priority.
00:21:43.740 Ensuring uniformly high standards
00:21:45.740 across the whole system is
00:21:47.740 essential. Alberta's government will
00:21:49.740 keep working closely with the
00:21:51.740 programs hit by the outbreak as they
00:21:53.740 reopen and return to full capacity.
00:21:55.740 And we're working with other child
00:21:57.740 care operators to identify
00:21:59.740 spaces in other centres
00:22:01.740 for those families who want
00:22:03.740 new placements for their children.
00:22:05.740 Currently all signs are pointing
00:22:07.740 to this shared kitchen. I know
00:22:09.740 parents want answers and so do I.
00:22:11.740 that's why we're conducting a review of all shared kitchens that serve child care centers
00:22:17.180 we will explore regulations and make changes if needed we will as i said if changes are needed to
00:22:23.580 be made we will make them we are always ready to step in and we will always respond to concerns
00:22:28.940 families are not alone on this or any other issue i'm so grateful to everyone involved in uncovering
00:22:34.620 the truth and fixing the damage done to so many kids this goes for the experts carrying out the
00:22:39.900 investigation the parents and incredible medical staff and the daycare workers who are now helping
00:22:45.740 children at the affected centers get back into their routines the love and care of all albertans
00:22:51.180 comes through very strong in the most difficult circumstances and that's what we're seeing now
00:22:55.820 that's how we'll get through this thank you and we'd be happy to take questions as i mentioned we
00:23:00.060 do have officials from the children's hospital able and on hand to answer any medical questions
00:23:04.860 thanks for being here today uh sarah often with global news we hear your your emotion and your
00:23:13.020 your sympathy for the parents that are affected but at the same time this is the first time that
00:23:17.580 they've heard from you and we've heard from parents that that has been very difficult from
00:23:21.500 them that they have wanted this from you and they have wanted it sooner than two weeks into this
00:23:26.700 how do you respond to that well i do have to take the advice of my health minister and in these
00:23:32.140 cases a couple of things come to mind number one is we know because of what we've gone through with
00:23:37.340 the previous health emergency that politicians cannot be directing these investigations call
00:23:43.020 politicians cannot be interfering in health orders if politicians interfere in health orders they can
00:23:47.900 be rendered illegal so we have to make sure that we're deferring to the medical officer of health
00:23:53.820 and allowing him the latitude to inspect and make the decisions he needs to on closures and and
00:23:59.020 guiding the process for when reopening can occur um the other part of the factor was we we didn't
00:24:06.380 have answers in the first week i mean i think we would have uh liked to come out earlier understanding
00:24:11.580 if we'd been able to get to the bottom of this but as you've heard we've now had 45 different
00:24:15.500 food samples taken and we still don't know precisely what the uh what the cause is i mean
00:24:21.340 i heard loud and clear that people did want to hear from our government absolutely it's why we've
00:24:25.020 done two press conferences this week and uh we'll we'll be mindful of that but i i think that the
00:24:30.780 way this unfolded the priority for everyone was making sure that they could get the care for the
00:24:36.940 kids the uh the the the number of people who've been impacted by this the the front line uh hospital
00:24:44.780 work that needed to be done the specialized center to be able to make sure kids could be
00:24:49.420 uh tested and because they need to be retested and test negative twice before they can return
00:24:54.780 that was the priority and i think that was the right priority i i support the the chief medical
00:24:59.580 officer of health in in in getting into the investigation right away i support the frontline
00:25:04.700 workers and the the doctor that you see here today and all of the great work that they did
00:25:08.540 and i think people wanted to make sure that that was that we put first things first the first things
00:25:12.940 first was was good care for the kids when we talk about um you know waiting for those answers we've
00:25:19.420 heard from health officials that again we're waiting to hear more from that investigation
00:25:26.220 before any changes are made but we've also heard that sourcing these kind of E. coli outbreaks can
00:25:32.380 be incredibly difficult and finding an answer is often very rare so I guess you know what needs to
00:25:39.180 happen and is it possible that we look at making changes before you know a source is found
00:25:47.420 considering the fact that there may not be a source that's found does this indicate gaps in
00:25:52.940 our food safety system that we should be thinking about and thinking about now whether we're able to
00:25:58.380 definitively discover what exact food product caused this outbreak i think that you've heard
00:26:03.980 dr jaffe say that it is very highly likely that it was the central kitchen so with that being the
00:26:10.300 case we we have to bring new regulations and new standards around all central kitchens
00:26:15.500 that serve child care centers so we've started that investigation already we've started that review
00:26:20.940 and i'll be looking to my minister of children and family services seril certain to bring forward
00:26:25.820 any suggested changes that we have but we want to act swiftly on that we want to make sure that
00:26:29.420 parents understand who are in this similar situation that the that the inspections are
00:26:33.980 taking place that the standards are extraordinarily high and that there is zero tolerance for any kind
00:26:40.860 of of poor food handling practices that can lead to this and jonathan just one second before you
00:26:47.020 get going i just want to indicate we'll be taking one question one follow-up from each outlet if we
00:26:51.180 have time we'll try to get to the phones as well we have doctors rizzuti and dr principate here
00:26:56.300 available for questions as well uh here in person you can take your time to line up with the mic now
00:27:00.940 and we'll go to you next at the mic you mentioned that the shared kitchen has been closed indefinitely
00:27:07.420 so uh indefinitely uh because of the outbreak what is the probability that it will reopen eventually
00:27:15.180 um i would say indefinitely means indefinitely there's no answer to that yet until we get to
00:27:20.780 the bottom of the investigation okay and another thing is this outbreak has been taking place for
00:27:25.660 a little over a week now why did you wait so long to address the media about this
00:27:30.220 as i answered in the previous question we we needed to have answers this is a uh under our
00:27:36.060 public health act when a closure order is put forward under section 29 it is the chief medical
00:27:42.220 officer of health who directs the investigation and he was directing the investigation keeping us
00:27:47.340 up to speed on what was happening unfortunately we just didn't have answers we still don't have all
00:27:51.580 the answers that we need and at the same time alberta health services had hopped into action
00:27:56.140 and was making sure that they were taking care of the kids um i think that's the priority the
00:28:01.260 The medical attention to the kids and the investigation.
00:28:05.200 Hearing from politicians is not normally the first priority in these kinds of situations.
00:28:09.560 I think we all know that the first priority has to be kids' safety.
00:28:13.400 We believe that now that we've got some things to announce,
00:28:15.620 that we're going to be addressing some of the stresses that the families are facing,
00:28:19.300 this is the time for us to be able to start addressing some of the policy issues.
00:28:23.940 Thank you.
00:28:27.720 Jillian Code with City News.
00:28:29.200 I'm just wondering about the 26 secondary transmission cases.
00:28:32.740 Do we have an age range on those?
00:28:34.360 How many are children?
00:28:35.540 And if any are receiving treatment in hospital as well?
00:28:40.700 So there are 26 secondary transmissions.
00:28:43.600 That typically occurs within a family setting.
00:28:46.280 It could be to a sibling, could be to a parent, could be to a grandparent.
00:28:50.420 I don't have the information in front of me about whether any of those individuals required hospitalization.
00:28:59.200 But do you have any information on if, you know, there are also children or parents are also getting infected with this?
00:29:05.200 There are some children who are impacted, there are some parents, and I believe there was at least one grandparent on the list as well.
00:29:12.200 Thank you.
00:29:16.200 Hi, my question concerns the kitchen, CBC, French service. What does it take to close
00:29:23.960 a kitchen? This kitchen, as you told us, was repeatedly found to be an infraction
00:29:30.760 and there was problem after problem. Why wasn't it closed before?
00:29:36.920 You know, my initial thought hearing Dr. Jaffe is that this is a deficiency in our
00:29:42.040 public health act it's deficiency in the statute if he doesn't have the authority to close the
00:29:48.120 kitchen keep it closed i certainly don't have the authority to close it and keep it closed someone
00:29:52.920 should have that authority and so that'll be one of the things that we we have to look at if there
00:29:57.640 is a need for statutory change is what is the bar that a a number of violations has to pass before
00:30:05.080 a kitchen cannot be recertified it sounds to me like there's a bit of a hole in the in the statutes
00:30:09.640 and that's one of the things we'll have to have a look at.
00:30:11.560 So when do you think your government will be able to find a solution to that?
00:30:17.560 Well, look, I mean, I understand the desire to get quick statutory change,
00:30:24.760 but I would say that we're not through the crisis yet, and we need to get through the crisis.
00:30:30.760 We need to make sure that the number of positive cases stops rising.
00:30:35.640 we need to ensure that the number of people who have tested positive test negative twice so that
00:30:40.280 they can get back on with uh returning to the routine of their of their lives we need to make
00:30:45.000 sure that all of those kids who are in hospital on dialysis are stabilized and hopefully fully
00:30:51.400 recovered and back home and and parallel minister turton is going to be doing the investigation
00:30:57.960 about what is happening in other kitchens identifying the deficiencies in law if we
00:31:02.760 have the ability to bring forward legislation in the fall remember our fall session starting pretty
00:31:07.240 quickly here um then we will if it has to wait until the spring then we'll do it in the spring
00:31:12.520 but we we would we would be looking at some urgency and being able to fill any gaps thank you
00:31:20.920 rick bell calgary sun um just want to get back i know the questions have been asked twice but
00:31:27.080 uh you're saying you wanted to wait until there was more information etc i don't think people
00:31:31.240 were were wanting you to come forward with the information there are professionals here who can
00:31:35.560 give us the information i think they were looking for some level of comfort this they were looking
00:31:42.760 for a political response commensurate an immediate political response i believe commensurate with the
00:31:49.400 terrific immediate response from the healthcare professionals they got it from the healthcare
00:31:55.240 professionals they did not get it politically so i'm going to ask the question in that context
00:32:00.760 which is i understand you didn't have all the information i understand you didn't know about
00:32:05.640 all the cases but why were you not here front and center to offer some solace at that time
00:32:12.520 when things when the headlines hit on this uh tragedy really it's a fair criticism i've um
00:32:21.400 i've heard it and i'll accept that for for next time minister lagrange has heard that criticism
00:32:26.760 She'll accept it for next time.
00:32:27.920 Minister Churton has heard that criticism
00:32:29.480 and will accept that for next time.
00:32:31.520 I think that I've also experienced
00:32:33.640 and watched a lot of instances
00:32:35.780 where politicians show up at disaster scenes
00:32:38.900 and people are yelling at them saying,
00:32:40.660 we don't want you here.
00:32:41.760 We want the emergency workers focused on helping us.
00:32:44.900 So look, I suppose if we had come out early,
00:32:49.180 we might have people saying,
00:32:50.580 why are you interfering with the investigation?
00:32:52.980 We felt, and you can look back
00:32:55.480 with 2020 hindsight and say we understand that people expected more of a response from our
00:33:02.080 government earlier and we'll do better next time. But I think that the point remains that the kids
00:33:07.680 were getting the care immediately. The public health investigation began immediately. The parents
00:33:13.360 were informed immediately. And this is part of the reason why they have managed to contain the
00:33:18.060 outbreak even though there could have been potentially 1,300 kids and their siblings and
00:33:21.760 family members all impacted by this so i want to i want to make sure that the uh that that we
00:33:27.080 continue to celebrate the incredible response of our frontline workers which has been amazing
00:33:32.040 and that we celebrate the uh the the action that the public health officials have taken in doing
00:33:37.600 a very rigorous thorough analysis and getting to the bottom of it uh supplementary and i appreciate
00:33:44.320 i appreciate your answer i i don't know if coming forward a people would have got mad at you coming
00:33:49.020 forward and be i don't think it would have interfered with the work of the hospital but
00:33:52.220 that's just me um second thing is there a universe uh solar system that you can imagine
00:34:00.380 where that kitchen ever serves food to children in daycares again i know you're waiting for the
00:34:08.300 final investigation but is there any world where we are not going to see the headline
00:34:14.540 that that kitchen if they were in fact the very very likely people ever forget about indefinitely
00:34:21.100 ever serves daycares again all i can tell you is at the moment the judgment of the chief medical
00:34:30.140 officer of health is that it is closed and that it is closed indefinitely
00:34:36.860 thank you uh we're now going to go over to the phones for some questions we only we might have
00:34:41.820 We have time for one or two.
00:34:43.860 Operator, could you put through the first question, please?
00:34:48.920 Tyler Dawson, National Post.
00:34:51.860 Hey, thanks for taking my question.
00:34:54.840 Just actually a numbers question, if that's all right.
00:34:57.840 And that's how many kids have been in hospital
00:35:01.840 and how many have been on dialysis?
00:35:04.880 Like, I know you said there were, what was it,
00:35:07.840 12 in hospital today and six on dialysis.
00:35:10.820 How many kids have gone through hospital, come out, still in, and how many have gone on, come off dialysis?
00:35:17.760 I'm just looking for those sort of top line numbers.
00:35:19.740 I'll ask Dr. Principe to speak to that.
00:35:24.080 Thank you for that question.
00:35:26.100 And I'm going to have to defer to our team to get those exact numbers for you.
00:35:30.480 We've had the day-to-day and as those have fluctuated, we haven't looked back and gotten a cumulative sense of the total number.
00:35:37.700 What we do know is the total number that have been impacted in hospital and being discharged in hospital is decreasing and the number being discharged is increasing and we're seeing very low numbers coming to our emergency department with new symptoms.
00:35:54.200 But we can look at the total who have actually been affected and required hospital admissions and get that out to the media.
00:36:01.360 Thank you.
00:36:02.140 And you have a follow-up, Tyler?
00:36:03.560 I'm sorry if this is a dumb question
00:36:07.360 or the people have asked before,
00:36:08.400 but why wasn't this closed earlier?
00:36:11.500 Obviously there were these violations,
00:36:12.960 they were cleaned up, re-inspected.
00:36:15.140 What does it actually take to close one of these
00:36:18.140 facilities?
00:36:19.580 I think Dr. Jaffe answered that
00:36:22.520 by saying that all of the violations
00:36:25.020 that were found in April were inspected and cleaned up
00:36:28.020 immediately.
00:36:29.280 The violations that were found on September 5th
00:36:31.880 were new and he also mentioned under the public health act that there isn't authority granted to
00:36:36.980 him to close a facility permanently so that's why we need to look at the legislation and see if that
00:36:42.740 is missing in statutes we'd have to do a bit of a review of whether public health acts and other
00:36:47.320 jurisdictions do have some kind of bar or line that if you have this many violations that's it
00:36:54.680 you cannot get re-licensed I just at the moment we haven't done that statutory review but it is
00:37:00.080 there at the moment there doesn't appear to be authority granted to anyone to make a permanent
00:37:05.140 closure decision. Thank you, Tyler. We have time for one more question today. Operator,
00:37:10.500 could you put through our last caller, please? Hi, thanks for taking my question. This one's
00:37:17.960 for Premier Smith. I want to go back to your announcement today of the one-time payment of
00:37:22.120 $2,000 per child. This could set a sort of precedent, so I'm wondering how your government
00:37:26.620 will address other illnesses at daycares like flu, RSV and COVID when there are lax health and
00:37:31.500 safety procedures in place. Well I think with this in particular I mean we've just come off
00:37:36.360 for instance a pretty serious fire season where people were disrupted and we have a mechanism
00:37:42.180 where when people have that kind of disruption they can get a compassionate payment of $12.50
00:37:48.440 per person and I think it's $500 per child so that was the thinking behind here is that
00:37:52.460 We know in this circumstance, really quite extraordinary that you've got a number of families who are still not able to have their children return.
00:38:04.340 It's disrupting the family income, and we wanted to make sure that if there were additional financial pressures, that we could give a compassionate payment to assist them with that.
00:38:14.080 That being said, we also believe that it's the daycare operator's obligation to make sure that they're delivering service and are getting paid for service they deliver.
00:38:26.360 And if they're not delivering service, that there is a refund.
00:38:29.480 And so we would hope that that would occur as well.
00:38:32.220 You know, this is unprecedented.
00:38:34.100 I can't think of another circumstance where we have seen this many cases stemming from a single incident like this.
00:38:42.120 And when extraordinary emergencies occur, we have the latitude to make these kinds of decisions.
00:38:48.600 And so that would be the, I hope this doesn't happen again.
00:38:52.740 We're going to do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again.
00:38:55.340 But that's the reason why we've taken the approach we have.
00:39:00.760 And did you have a follow-up, Alana?
00:39:03.160 I do, yes.
00:39:04.020 I wanted to also touch on what you said earlier.
00:39:06.400 You said you've directed a review into the regulations and standards around all central kitchens that serve child care centers.
00:39:12.700 Can you provide more details on this review, like who's involved, how long you expect it to take,
00:39:17.260 if there'll be any likely recommendations into changes into the Public Health Act?
00:39:21.440 Well, a couple things.
00:39:23.020 So it's going to be led by Minister Cyril Turton out of his ministry, and we are getting started on that.
00:39:29.820 We have, I don't know if you have any more details about how many kitchens are in this circumstance,
00:39:34.200 or are you just beginning your review?
00:39:35.140 Just beginning.
00:39:35.620 so he's just beginning the review so we'll have more information as he goes along the uh the the
00:39:41.780 pub the public health act changes that we may make would uh would not be coming this fall we um we're
00:39:49.060 very close to starting legislative session and so whatever public health act changes we get i would
00:39:54.260 hope we would get recommendations before the end of the year so that we're in a position to be able
00:39:58.500 to bring through any changes in the spring perfect thank you and that'll conclude today's press
00:40:03.780 conference thank you everyone for joining us