Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, right, becomes emotional as she speaks to the media about an E. coli outbreak at several Calgary daycares as Dr. Mark Joffe, Alberta chief medical officer of health, looks on, in Calgary, on Sept. 15.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Eleven days after an E. coli outbreak was declared at a chain of Calgary daycares, Danielle Smith stepped up to a podium for the first time to address the situation, acknowledging “fair criticism” from parents that the Alberta Premier was publicly absent from the crisis for too long.
“We understand that people expected more of a response from our government earlier, and we’ll do better next time,” she said Friday. After expressing her sympathies, the Premier announced a “compassionate payment” of $2,000 per child enrolled in the affected daycares.
“I’m heartbroken by what these families are going through,” Ms. Smith said, struggling to maintain composure. She also called on the affected child-care facilities to “recognize the hardship that has been caused and reimburse families the fees for the days that children have spent out of care.”
Alberta Health Services declared the E. coli outbreak on Sept. 4 at six daycares operated by Fueling Brains Academy, which has so far refused to refund child-care fees, as well as five other child-care sites. The daycares are connected by a catering kitchen, operated by Fueling Minds Inc., which shares directors with Fueling Brains.
Officials believe the outbreak originated in the kitchen, but the investigation is continuing. The kitchen remained closed “indefinitely,” government officials said.
Fueling Brains did not respond to a request for comment from The Globe and Mail on Friday. But in a statement on Thursday, the company said it had terminated services with Fueling Minds and is “in the midst of securing an alternate food solution.”
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In an e-mail Friday to the superintendents of some schools in Texas, where its U.S. business is based, Fueling Brains reiterated that it had severed ties with the kitchen. The Globe obtained a copy of the e-mail sent by Fueling Brains co-founder Anil Karim.
Mr. Karim is also a director of Fueling Minds kitchen. The e-mail makes no reference to the connection.
Mr. Karim said Fueling Brains is doing what it can to “provide our families extensive daily communications to keep them apprised of any developments.” But some parents of children who attend Fueling Brains have said the opposite, that the communication has not only been infrequent but unhelpful.
John Greenhow, whose son tested positive for E. coli as a result of the outbreak, said: “I think that misrepresents the way they’ve been communicating, specifically with regards to the linkage between the kitchen and the daycare. I think they’ve been deliberately opaque about that and deliberately misleading.”
He added that parents received no direct communication from the founders, Mr. Karim and Faisal Alimohd, until Wednesday, nine days after the outbreak was declared.
The Premier was the focus of an open letter published this week by parents of children attending Fueling Brains. They demanded to know why Ms. Smith had said so little about the crisis. The letter, signed by more than 1,000 people by Friday afternoon, said the province’s response has been inadequate and questioned the regulations in place to prevent illness among children.
Katie McLean, a psychotherapist whose daughter spent six days in hospital as a result of the outbreak, says the province’s promise of financial compensation is a welcome step, but parents still need answers.
“I appreciate that the government is doing it. I think it is the right thing to do. But at the same time, that $2,000 doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop asking for accountability,” she said. “It doesn’t take any of the pressure off of the provincial government’s role in this, in my opinion.”
The catering kitchen was found to have violated a number of food-safety practices over the past three years. The most recent inspection on Sept. 5, the day after it was ordered closed, found cockroaches, a “sewer-gas smell” and improper equipment to keep food cold during transportation.
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Mark Joffe, Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, acknowledged concerns that AHS let the kitchen operate despite previous infractions but said they were corrected and not as critical compared with what was discovered this month. AHS can’t permanently close a facility unless “critical violations continue to exist,” he said.
“I certainly acknowledge this is all cold comfort to the parents of children who fell ill,” Dr. Joffe said. “I am not trying to make excuses for this operator in any way. But the inspectors did their job under the Public Health Act.”
Ms. Smith said the government is conducting a “review of all shared kitchens that serve child-care centres” and will make changes to regulations if needed. The New Democratic Party, also on Friday, called for a public inquiry into the catering kitchen. A statement from Ms. Smith later that day said an inquiry is a possibility.
“If there’s some deficiency in our regulatory environment, we’ve got to correct that. So I’d be open to doing a more thorough investigation once we have some of those answers,” she said.
The 11 daycares connected to the outbreak were allowed to reopen earlier this week. The government is working with other daycare operators to find space for parents who want to move their children to different facilities.
Dr. Joffe said lab results have come back for 19 of the 45 “food items” collected from the kitchen and daycares. All have tested negative for E. coli.