The Mayor of Saugeen Shores is expressing his frustrations with the province this week, as they have yet to respond to their requests to have drinking water testing services returned to the community.
Council sent a letter to the Ministry of Health and Public Health Ontario in late 2022, requesting that the service that was removed from the Saugeen Memorial Hospital early in the pandemic be restored.
Mayor Luke Charbonneau says there’s been silence from the province on picking up any samples from the region.
“We’re the second largest community in the region, we’re the largest municipality in Bruce County,” he says. “Public Health Ontario is responsible for collecting people’s well water and testing it and giving them results and they should be responsible for providing convenient pick up in rural areas… we’re not asking them to go door to door. We’re asking for one pickup in Port Elgin at the Plex.”
A study by the town showed that adding a Saugeen Shores pickup would only add 10 minutes to the courier’s route. Currently, the closest testing site is a half-hour away in Kincardine.