Saugeen Shores council is pushing to have private drinking water testing services returned to their community, after they were removed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At this week’s meeting, council approved a letter Mayor Luke Charbonneau’s penned to Dr. Samir Patel of the Public Health Ontario Laboratory, asking that pick-up and drop off locations return to their community, operating out of the municipal office.
Policy changes by Grey-Bruce hospitals in 2020 forced water testing to be run out of nearby grocery stores instead and the number of locations in the area was reduced to just five. The closest testing available to Saugeen Shores is currently half an hour away in Kincardine.
The issue was first raised by Coun. Dave Myette who says they need a resolution soon.
“It’s been over a year since we first brought this to the attention of the Health Unit that this service was lacking,” he said. “So hopefully that letter gets in front of the eyes that it needs to get in front of so that we actually get a service available to our communities.”
Charbonneau’s letter notes that Grey-Bruce is home to the tragic Walkerton waterborne outbreak incident, where, in 2000, E. coli in the town’s drinking water supply sickened more than 2,000 people and resulted in six deaths.