By Craig Lord

As baby boomers begin to approach old age en masse, retirement residences in Ottawa are increasingly becoming the target of food inspectors.

Looking at the City of Ottawa’s restaurant inspections data from 2009 to 2014, which includes retirement residences and any such food premises, the number of inspections of retirement homes increased by 387.5 per cent over those years. Compare that to the total number of food inspections in the city, which rose by just 59.9 per cent over the same period.

Recently, too, the majority of infractions are coming from just four residences. The Promenade, Palisades, Redwoods, and Chartwell Heritage Retirement Residences account for more than half of violations from all residences from 2014 to May of 2015.

Peter Kocoris, general manager of the Promenade Retirement Residence, says that the violations aren’t always indicators of a poor kitchen condition. Most infractions are minor, like an unfilled soap dispenser, and do not pose immediate risk or cause for closure.

“If they have a finding, you could correct it right on the spot,” he says. “For the most part, it’s something that can be fixed.”

Kocoris, a former chef by trade, feels the Promenade is a well-maintained operation. He says there is continuous quality improvement internally, and that the occasional violation shouldn’t affect the confidence of patrons.

“Put it this way: I eat here too.”

The risk for seniors is higher with regards to food sanitation. Brenda Watson, executive director of the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education, says that the aging population is as vulnerable as children and pregnant women.

“Seniors are at greater risk. They just have to be extra diligent in practicing in safe-food handling,” she says.

Despite this, the standards for retirement residence inspections are the same for most other food premises. Ottawa Public Health says that retirement residences are inspected a minimum of three times per year, with regular offenders receiving additional inspections. The only difference in standards between a retirement home and a typical restaurant is that retirement homes require one member of the food preparation staff to be certified by Ottawa Public Health.

Kocoris says that the risks associated with serving seniors are well documented, and acknowledges the additional responsibility.

“I think the standards are higher.”

Kocoris recalls the 2008 Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis outbreak. Toronto Public Health ramped up its investigations into a possible outbreak when a case of listeriosis was documented at a nursing home.

“People are more food-savvy now,” he says.

Since food inspections became a matter of public record in Ottawa, the ease of comparing residences for sanitation infractions has meant a tighter leash for any food establishment. Instead of feeling pressured by this reality, Kocoris says he and other residence managers should welcome the scrutiny.

“People should do their homework. … Nobody wants to put their parent in harm’s way. Honestly, most retirement homes should have an open-door policy. Show off the kitchens; show off how clean they are. People ask those types of questions now.”

Were his residence to ever face closure over a major infraction, Kocoris realizes there’s no coming back.

“It’s a public relations nightmare for not only retirement homes, but for any restaurant, to have a food poisoning issue. That’s your bread and butter. That’s your business. The last thing you want is to be in non-compliance.”

“When the inspector came in, [they saw that] we do our own jalapeños we pickle them, and they go in to a big Rubbermaid container and the Rubbermaid container was sitting on the floor rather than up a milk crate,” says Dominic Donato owner of Burrito Shack on 775 Bank Street in Ottawa. Donato’s restaurant is one of the 253 places written up for the FWA restaurant inspection code by Ottawa Public Health between January and May of this year.

The FWA code means that the floors, walls, and ceilings of a restaurant have to be clean and in good repair, as noted by the Health Protection and Promotion Act.

Restaurants in Ottawa are cited most often for the FWA code, almost 600 times more than the next closest code since 2009. There are also over 1800 more instances of this code than the third highest, according to Ottawa Public Health.

Donato said his employees are to blame for the code infraction in May.

“Most employees think that because it’s in a food-safe Rubbermaid container that it’s fine because the base of it is hard shelled to sit on the floor. So they don’t realize that in the eyes of the inspector that that’s considered an infraction,” said Donato.

The reason that the code shows up so often isn’t necessarily the restaurants’ fault, says Blayr Kelly, a supervisor in Ottawa Public Health’s Environmental Health Protection Branch. It may be the fault of the code.

“Floors, walls, and ceilings covers a lot. If you think about it, it’s the entire premise from the time we walk in to reaching the far back corner of the building,” said Kelly.

The code is quite broad, which makes it more likely that a restaurant will be cited for it.

“It’s not just a one single pinpoint issue. So it’s not surprising to us that that would be the most common code,” said Kelly. “It is a deficiency or an infraction or an observation that can almost be expected to be on a report.”

Vincent Gobuyan, owner of Green Papaya on 256 Preston Street, was also cited for the FWA code in May.

“It was a leak in the plumbing in the basement below the kitchen and it was just overlooked,” says Gobuyan.

He said he is not surprised at how much more common the FWA code is, compared to other codes, because it is about the building rather than the food itself.

“A restaurant is always susceptible to things like that because it’s overworked as a building, certainly there’s wear and tear on certain things,” said Gobuyan.

Despite this code being so common for restaurants when they are cited, it is not likely to close down restaurants or pose a serious risk to anyone, said Kelly.

“It’s not something that’s necessarily going to make anyone sick, but it’s something that’s going to require attention for the overall general sanitation for the premises,” said Kelly.

The walls and ceilings don’t pose as much of a problem as floors do in order for restaurants to pass the code, said Donato.

“It’s the floor thing that everybody has a hard time with,” said Donato. “Because most people don’t realize in the eyes of an inspector if you have an open case of pop, and one pop is sitting on the floor, that’s still an infraction.

These restaurants are inspected by a variety of health inspectors who are all looking for different things, which makes consistency difficult.

“There are 22 health inspectors that have written it down for their own reason or observation,” said Kelly.

Donato said that in his three decades in the restaurant business, he’s had 50 different inspectors. “Some of them are just more strict than others,” said Donato.

Around 5 p.m. every weekday two Ottawa police cars park beside one another just off Elgin Street on a small street called Jack Purcell Lane, situated in front of Jack Purcell Community Centre. Then they wait, usually with coffees in hand. The building on the corner shields them from street viewers and the central location provides an ideal outpost to wait for calls from dispatch. The cops, however, are not behind most of the infractions that occur on Jack Purcell Lane.

In the first six months and six days of 2015, 368 parking tickets have been given out to cars sitting on Jack Purcell Lane. The lane, which is more of an alleyway, stretches less than half a city block and only covers just over 20 city-patrolled parking spots. Many people who use those spots work or go to the community centre on a daily basis, but others enjoy the dog park and playground area that surround the centre.

On one cold Tuesday evening in particular, a white Ottawa parking services vehicle rounded the corner of the lane just after six o’clock. After inspecting each car and finding an un-validated silver Honda, a parking attendant who requested not to be named, called out and asked if the car belonged to anyone in the dog park. It did, and the woman in question hurried into the community centre to validate her car.

“We always do that, we always give people a chance,” said the officer when asked why he had let her off the hook. However, it was the officer’s first day of work in the area.

The combination of the community centre, the public recreation areas and the close access to Elgin makes the strip of Jack Purcell Lane an ideal spot and when officers make the trip out, there’s usually more than one offender to speak for. There have been 16 days in which there was only one ticket issued on the lane. All other days on which a ticket was issued, there were multiple, often at different times of the day.

Jeffrey Russell knows this all too well. In trying to find a spot to park on a Saturday with his wife and preteen son, he bristled when the payment toll wouldn’t accept his card. Of course that was because it was a weekend, but Russell had been spurned in the area before. “They just prowl the street I swear. Godamn city,” he said with a laugh. “See? It’s even a Saturday and I’m worried about it.”

Of the spots allocated on Jack Purcell Lane, three are designated for vehicles with an Accessible Parking Permit (APP), while there are large spaces in front of the centre to accommodate Para Transpo vehicles. These are needed spaces, as Kelly Fox, a student working with the city of Ottawa in the special needs unit of the parks, recreation and culture division notes. “Jack Purcell is the only such facility in Ottawa that has extensive programs for seniors with disabilities, so as a result we send a large number of them there.”

While city rules require any parking spot with 20 or more spaces to have at least one parking spot for the disabled, the functions of Jack Purcell Community Centre result in more APP spots, culminating in a crowded parking area with more people willing to risk a ticket for a spot.