THUNDER BAY – Customers will soon see letter grades popping up in the windows of tattoo parlours, hair salons, nail spas, and other personal service businesses in Thunder Bay. It’s part of a new initiative by the city to give the public more information on safety compliance in the sector.
The city already uses a similar grading scheme for food service operations, administered by the District Health Unit (TBDHU). Restaurants are required to display a letter grade assigned by the city based on health inspection results. Lee Sieswerda, the Manager of Environmental Health at the TBDHU, says that program has been highly successful.
“When we first started, there was a spread of As, Bs, Cs, and Ds,” he says. “Now, you rarely see a C or a D anymore. Something like 90% have an A grade now, and food safety has improved tremendously.”
Personal services settings will be subject to a similar system beginning in February. The city will apply an “Infection Control” grade, from A to D. The system is designed to guard against blood borne infections like HIV, Hepatitis B and C, as well as skin infections.
The move comes after the province passed its first-ever regulations covering personal services settings in the summer of 2018. That has given operators over a year to come into compliance with the new rules.
The city has been communicating with business owners for at least six months about the new grading system, Sieswerda says. The first grades will be issued in February, but he expects it could take up to a year before the city has covered all businesses in the sector.
Beyond the grading system, the city has the power to issue fines for repeated non-compliance, and to close a business in extreme cases. Sieswerda doesn’t anticipate those steps will be necessary.
“I really doubt it will come to that,” he says. “Really, we’re trying not to get to enforcement, that’s why we’re doing the grading.”
