A motion with instructions to staff passed the Public Health Subcommittee earlier this month. Pictured: Ward 2 Councillor Cameron Kroetsch. Photo Credit: City of Hamilton.
A motion for Hamilton city staff to study the feasibility of implementing a local public health wastewater surveillance program passed at a Public Health Subcommittee meeting earlier this month.
The motion was brought forward by Dr. Robin Lennox, who is a family physician with McMaster Family Medicine and the Co-Head of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Substance Use Service.
Lennox’s motion was seconded by Councillor Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2 – Downtown Hamilton).
Kroetsch has historically had what can be called a strict stance when it comes to public health.
He was one of only three Councillors who voted in May 2023 to continue the City of Hamilton’s vaccine mandate for new hires indefinitely.
The other two Councillors who voted with Kroetsch to continue the mandate were Councillors Maureen Wilson (Ward 1 – Chedoke-Cootes-Westdale) and Alex Wilson (Ward 13 – Dundas-Central Flamborough).
Notably, Kroetsch also continues to wear a facial mask to Hamilton Council meetings.
In making the argument for local wastewater surveillance, Lennox says that it is an “accurate, effective, and cost-efficient tool for monitoring community transmission of respiratory viruses and other potential public health threats.”
The Government of Ontario previously ran a program to monitor wastewater during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program began in 2020 but was ended in July 2024.
Costs for the Ontario program started out at about $10 million per year, but later increased to $15 million.
The provincial program initially involved testing 58 locations multiple times a week, but was later increased to 107 sites in April 2023.
A total of 13 post-secondary institutions, including Hamilton’s McMaster University, partnered with the province to run the program.
Despite the price tag and the fact that the “emergency phase” of the pandemic had ended, some researchers and public health officials were deeply upset that provincial wastewater surveillance was discontinued in July.
The province reiterated that the federal government still conducts some wastewater surveillance in Ontario, albeit only at four locations all in the City of Toronto.
As such, some cities, specifically Peterborough and Ottawa, decided to continue their wastewater surveillance programs using municipal resources.
Lennox wants Hamilton to do the same, saying that “wastewater surveillance can provide an early warning of viruses in a community or high-risk setting and support an early public health response.”
It is somewhat unclear how much of an impact a municipal program would have outside of a pandemic, even though surveillance can detect mpox, RSV, influenza, and H5N1 levels in addition to COVID.
It is also unclear what the associated costs would be for a Hamilton-run program.
The City of Peterborough’s wastewater surveillance program was estimated to cost up to $62,500 annually, but its population is almost seven times smaller than Hamilton.
Nevertheless, with Lennox’s motion passing at the Public Health Subcommittee, City of Hamilton staff will report back on the feasibility of a local program.
The motion did not specify a timeline for staff to report back.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
