Restaurant wants inspections made public

ST. JOHN'S - The tofu is crispy fried and the sizzling noodles are getting a little soft for Julia Bloomquist's liking.

It's time to get the lunch order up at her downtown St. John's restaurant and get to the point.

"I truly believe restaurants should not operate if they have something to hide," says Bloomquist, reacting to a recent decision in Alberta to make restaurant health inspection reports available free of charge to the public.

"They should be expecting an inspection on a day-to-day basis."

It was the latest decision in a series of developments that has forced greater transparency on Edmonton's health board, Capital Health. Previous decisions by Alberta's information commissioner and a series of investigative reports in The Edmonton Journal have, in part, prompted Capital Health to make its restaurant inspection reports freely available on the Internet as of July 1.

The decision follows similar moves in Toronto and Hamilton, Ont., New Brunswick and Vancouver, which all post restaurant inspections online.

There is no easily-accessible system in this province.

"I have nothing to hide," says Bloomquist, who would welcome an open process here. "Definitely, there are unclean kitchens as a result of current policies. I think that when restaurant owners aren't expected to maintain standards, there is always room for slipping below the bar - far below the bar. I think with this becoming a public issue, it's going to be expected for them to go far and beyond."

Restaurant inspection reports are available in this province only by asking for them through access to information laws, a formal process which can take months to complete and can include user fees. In fact, no one ever requested any restaurant inspection reports before last month, according to the Department of Government Services. That's when Transcontinental Media asked for several documents after a scathing report in January by the auditor general.

AG John Noseworthy said the province's restaurant health inspectors are behind schedule and sometimes let critical health hazards slip by unpunished. Noseworthy cited examples that included inspectors allowing five restaurants that failed inspection to stay open.

One restaurant violated two critical health hazards during eight consecutive health inspections, but remained open. The AG also said inspectors are 10 to 20 per cent behind schedule on medium- to high-risk establishments.

By law, Noseworthy can't name the restaurants, which is why The Telegram requested documents related to the issues raised by the auditor general. Government Services said the request had to go through the access to information process, which didn't sit well with provincial Information Commissioner Ed Ring.

Ring said that process should be used as a last resort to retrieve public information and Transcontinental shouldn't have to "jump through hoops" to get restaurant inspection reports that are in the interests of public safety.

In light of Ring's comments, Transcontinental Media asked again for the reports but was denied a second time.

Under access to information laws, the province has until March 15 to respond to Transcontinental's request or provide reasons for further delay.