Western Standard - July 29, 2024


Calgary Daycare E coli Outbreak Alberta Commits to Food Safety Review Findings

Mentioned
Rick Hansen Jones
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Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

169.81

Word count

983

Sentence count

53


Summary

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

In this episode, Premier Rachel Notley speaks about the devastating E. coli outbreak that affected hundreds of children in Calgary last fall, and the steps the government took to prevent it happening again in the future. She also announces a new strategy to improve food safety in Alberta's licensed child care facilities and kitchens.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Last fall, families in Calgary experienced a living nightmare, an E. coli outbreak affecting 17 licensed child care facilities around the city.
00:00:09.060 More than 400 people, mostly children, became ill during the most serious E. coli outbreak in Alberta's history.
00:00:16.280 39 individuals were sick enough to require hospitalization, and some of them are still requiring long-term health support as a result.
00:00:24.780 Thankfully, families were spared the worst. There were no deaths resulting from this outbreak.
00:00:28.940 But while the situation didn't end in deaths, we do recognize the devastating impact it had on those who were affected by it.
00:00:36.800 The children who got sick, and their family members who suffered the pain and anxiety of watching their loved ones fight for their lives.
00:00:42.980 Some impacts are still being felt today, almost a year later.
00:00:46.380 When parents put their children in daycare, they do so trusting that their kids will be cared for and kept safe.
00:00:52.340 And that's because we have systems in place to regulate and monitor health and safety practices in licensed facilities.
00:00:59.280 We know this outbreak has shaken that trust.
00:01:02.020 And as policymakers, we must do whatever we can to ensure this doesn't happen again.
00:01:06.940 During the crisis, our top priorities were looking after the people who got sick and tracking and containing the source of the outbreak.
00:01:13.680 But we also recognized that we needed a clearer understanding of how it happened.
00:01:19.000 That's why, as the crisis was unfolding last September, I called for the creation of a review panel to get to the bottom of what caused the outbreak,
00:01:25.860 and to ensure the policies are in place to hold operators accountable and to prevent it from happening again.
00:01:32.080 The review panel, led by former Calgary Police Chief Rick Hansen, was made up of child care operators, a food service operator, and subject matter experts, including a pediatrician, who treated some of the children.
00:01:45.080 Their task was to conduct a comprehensive review of the government policies and food safety practices that keep our children safe.
00:01:51.820 The review panel carefully considered every angle of this issue over seven months.
00:01:55.960 Their work included a thorough review of the relevant legislation, regulations, and inspection processes, as well as an engagement with people involved in the outbreak.
00:02:05.540 The review panel produced a report with 12 primary recommendations and 27 sub-recommendations for strengthening food safety in Alberta's licensed child care facilities and the kitchens that serve them.
00:02:17.320 These recommendations include promoting a culture of food safety,
00:02:21.140 making improvements to legislation and inspection systems for food safety,
00:02:26.280 and establishing new major investigations protocols with consequences for operators who've been found to have repeat violations,
00:02:35.560 and supporting better system alignment and integration in our food safety system.
00:02:42.500 I do have to thank the panel members for their work and their dedication to this critical task.
00:02:46.540 It's exactly the kind of thorough, solutions-oriented analysis I expected when appointing a 40-year law enforcement veteran to chair the review panel.
00:02:55.300 Since receiving the report, our government has been studying its recommendations carefully.
00:02:59.700 We will be acting on some of the recommendations immediately.
00:03:03.440 Some will require us to change existing laws and regulations, and others will require more considerations
00:03:08.760 so we fully understand how they'll impact child care operators, food service operators, and families.
00:03:14.420 But let me be clear, it's our government's intention to act on every recommendation we can to protect the children's safety and to restore trust in the system.
00:03:23.960 Thanks to the members of the review panel, what we have here is a detailed roadmap for improving food safety in Alberta,
00:03:30.100 and those improvements to policies are exactly what we'll deliver.
00:03:33.380 Question for the Premier, if you please.
00:03:36.060 Just speaking with some of the parents and their reaction,
00:03:38.980 I understand that you guys were able to provide them with their own briefing this morning.
00:03:43.720 You know, I know that a lot of this review had focused on food safety.
00:03:48.080 They say that it's the child care system that's broken and that failed them,
00:03:53.060 and they point to being, you know, asked, for example, to sign something,
00:03:56.880 waiving a provider's liability for their child's health and safety while in their care.
00:04:01.540 Is there enough oversight that's happening of the child care system?
00:04:06.120 Is it broken?
00:04:07.420 And did it fail kids in this respect?
00:04:09.620 Look, I'll have Minister Jones respond to that.
00:04:14.820 Thank you, Premier.
00:04:15.960 And certainly the situation did rock people's trust in the system.
00:04:19.660 What I would say is that we have over 100,000 children in care every day,
00:04:23.780 and that the vast majority of operators are committed to their health, safety, and well-being.
00:04:31.580 In some cases, we do see incidents where operators or perhaps their staff members
00:04:37.680 do not consistently implement a culture of food safety in their work.
00:04:43.860 And that's why it's important, why the panel's recommendations are so important,
00:04:48.060 so that we as government can improve the standards, we can raise the bar even higher,
00:04:53.260 and we already have high standards, but we are going to raise the bar even higher.
00:04:58.380 We are going to put in tools to hold people accountable,
00:05:00.940 and we're going to increase transparency so the parents can see an operator's track record.
00:05:05.680 How was their previous health inspection?
00:05:08.020 Do I trust this operator to care for my child?
00:05:11.020 Do I trust this operator to feed my child?
00:05:13.040 This is information that they will have.
00:05:15.180 And I can assure you, as Minister responsible for child care,
00:05:18.260 we are going to hold those accountable who don't protect children.
00:05:24.540 So that's my message.
00:05:25.800 Again, I believe the vast majority of providers do this every day.
00:05:29.380 That's why this outbreak, while tragic, this is the first outbreak of this magnitude in Alberta's history.
00:05:36.880 So I do believe the system is committed to working with us to improve safety across the board,
00:05:42.520 and we will have additional measures in place to hold those accountable who don't.