Ontario’s workplace education and enforcement campaign comes to Durham Region

Whitby, Ontario - From Dec. 10 to 13, Durham Region Health Department will partner with a provincial multi-ministry education and enforcement team, to participate in a province-wide business education and enforcement campaign designed to ensure organizations are taking necessary steps to keep employees, consumers and the public safe from the spread of COVID-19. This campaign supports the current efforts of various provincial offences officers, including police, municipal by-law officers and public health inspectors, to educate businesses and enforce COVID-19 health and safety requirements.

Throughout this campaign, this team of provincial offences officers will visit local businesses, including retail stores, restaurants and other area businesses, to provide guidance on how to operate safely and comply with public health requirements outlined in the Reopening Ontario Act, 2020. To date, this campaign has resulted in visits to over 1,000 businesses in communities across Ontario and has received positive feedback from business owners and operators. This initiative has been developed in consultation with local public health units and supports Ontario’s COVID-19 Response Framework: Keeping Ontario Safe and Open.

At each visit, provincial offences officers provide business owners with guidance on how to operate safely during the pandemic and follow public health measures. Businesses will be emailed a report after each visit. These inspections primarily focus on education and outreach and help to confirm that businesses are operating safely and keeping employees, consumers and the public protected. The most common areas of non-compliance to date have been improper mask use, lack of employee screening and improper sanitization. Locally, the Health Department has responded to over 900 inquiries and complaints related to businesses, organizations and the public regarding lack of compliance with COVID-19 public health measures since Nov. 20.

For more information and list of numerous sector-specific resources to help business owners and operators create a workplace safety plan, visit durham.ca/reopeningtoolkit. Additional resources are also available at ontario.ca/covidsafety.

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For more information, please contact the Health Department