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Almost 14,000 Inspections by Niagara Health Last Year

Concern expressed it was done by 29 people, in a region that's growing

Almost 14,000 inspections of Niagara businesses were done by the region's health inspectors last year.

Over 8,700 were done at food businesses, 825 were complaint driven.

Medical Officer of Health Dr. Azim Kasmani explained why they are careful not to publicly post every complaint, largely due to the possibility someone may be wanting to cause harm to a business.  "What's the history of the establishment or business in our previous routine inspections that we have to do provincially, as well as we work with the individuals.  Then we do a risk assessment, if it's deemed appropriate, we may do an in-person follow-up, based on a complaint, but we may also do a phone follow-up."

There were also questions raised after learning 29 inspectors do the work, which caused concern from Councillor Joyce Morocco, considering the number of new businesses springing up.
 
Director of Environmental Health Anthony Habjan assured her they are making adjustments.  "All of our staff have LTE tablets, so we're not coming to the office... we're not coming back in, we're not going back out, so when you look at the drive time, that eliminates 2 hours."

He added they've also expanded to working on weekends.

Inspections are also done at recreational water areas, congregate living organizations, child care settings, and others.
 

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