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Restaurant inspection reports online Chief health officer says he hasn't had to close a restaurant down yet
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 3, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
If foodies in Yellowknife are wondering how clean their favorite restaurant is, they need only to turn to the Department of Health and Social Services' website to find the latest inspection reports.
Chief environmental health officer Duane Fleming says the Department of Health and Social Services deals numerous health-related matters, including monitoring dog bites and testing for rabies. The bucket in the photo is what the department uses to store the heads of animals suspected of having rabies while being sent to the lab for testing.
- Candace Thomson/NNSL photo |
According to Duane Fleming, chief environmental health officer for the department, not many people in Yellowknife know that they can access the reports.
"Everything is there almost as soon as we get the reports in," said Fleming. "And the water testing results are all there too."
 Food inspection results
On the website consumers can find out whether or not restaurants, grocery stores and other establishments and facilities that serve food in the city are keeping up with regulations on food temperature, or whether products are coming from approved sources, and personal hygiene of workers and food is being kept free of contamination.
For concerned restaurant-goers, Fleming suggested keeping an eye on the general cleanliness and professionalism of the food service workers, kitchen staff, and management of the restaurant as well as the building itself.
He said Yellowknife restaurants measure up to the cleanliness and standards of restaurants anywhere else in Canada, and that if they didn't, the health officers would handle it.
"These places are open because we're allowing them to be open," he said. "If the place is really bad, we'll close it."
Fleming said he's never had to shut down a restaurant.
Quynchi Le, manager at A Taste of Saigon on 50th Street, scored perfectly on their latest health inspection in November 2012. She attributes their success to a little bit of elbow grease.
"We're just always working hard and keeping on top of everything," she said.
Yellowknife restaurant owners are compliant to requests to clean up or fix errors when asked, and it hasn't gotten to the point with any local eateries that health officers have threatened to shut them down.
Regardless, Fleming said business owners are not exactly happy to see the health officers especially since they usually show up without given notice.
"There's a little apprehension because you're there as a policing role, so they're a little nervous," said Fleming. "It depends on your rapport, and if they run a good operation they'll welcome someone to come in."
Fleming said restaurants that don't meed health standards are dealt a series of warnings unless they pose an immediate risk to the public.
"If there is repeated noncompliance, or they're ignoring what we're saying, we might have to shut them down," he said.
Health officers inspect anywhere food is packaged, handled or distributed that means grocery stores, convenience stores, and food processing plants. They are also tasked with ensuring drinking water is safe and are in charge of testing lakes where swimming and other recreational water activities take place. They inspect rental housing, schools, hospitals, hotels and other public and private facilities too.
Tattoo shops, hair and tanning salons, gyms and spas are also inspected under their own set of regulations and requirements.
Health officers also monitor dog bites in Yellowknife and other Northern communities to ward against the spread of rabies.
"Dog bites take up a lot of our time," said Fleming. "We get a lot of them in Yellowknife and the communities, about 200 last year."
Fleming said certain they've already surpassed last year's count in the NWT.
When someone is bitten, a report must go to Fleming's office. A health officer is sent to put the dog under quarantine and monitor the animal for 10 days to make sure it isn't infected with rabies. If they can't find the dog, then the bite victim is given the option of having the rabies vaccine.
When a dog that has bitten someone is found dead, Fleming's office sends its head off to labs down south to test the brain for rabies.
Fleming has been in the North for 25 years since moving to Yellowknife in 1988 for work from his home in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. He started out as an environmental health officer until switching over to occupational health and safety in 1993. He took over in his current role of chief health officer in 1999, which keeps him in the office for the most part while he oversees three other health officers in Yellowknife, two in Inuvik and one in Hay River. Fleming said he does get into the field a few times a year.
Since they cover so many different areas and deal with the public, Fleming said it's important for health officers to have good interpersonal skills. They must also complete a Bachelor of Science degree before taking the environmental health degree at one of five universities in Canada that offer the program.
He also said his office is always open to the public.
"If anyone has any questions or concerns they can always come to us for advice," he said. "Even if we don't know the answer we'll be able to point them in the right direction."
with files from Daniel Campbell
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