The Decibel - Lessons from the massive daycare E.Coli outbreak in Calgary

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Hundreds of people are sick and dozens are in the hospital in Calgary, after one of Canada’s worst outbreaks of E.Coli in kids ever. Some cases have left children hospitalized, leaving parents scared, frustrated and angry.Dave McGinn has been following the outbreak for The Globe. Today, he’ll tell us what warning signs might have been missed from the kitchen suspected to be at the centre of the outbreak, and how this fits into concerns around childcare in Canada more broadly.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

In Calgary, several daycares are experiencing one of the biggest outbreaks of E. coli in kids ever recorded in Canada. Hundreds are sick, some of them severely, and the questions are piling up. How did this outbreak start? Who's responsible? And could it have been prevented? Dave McGinn covers childcare issues for The Globe and has been following this. Today, he'll tell us what we know about the outbreak, why parents are furious, and how this situation fits into the broader discussion of childcare in Canada. I'm Maina Karaman-Wilms, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Dave, thanks so much for being here today.

Thank you for having me. So what do we know about this E. coli outbreak so far? The outbreak was declared on Monday, September 4th. And the weekend leading up to that, parents had already begun taking their kids to the hospital because they were showing, you know, the typical symptoms are bloody diarrhea and vomiting. And so, you know, if you have a child suffering those symptoms, you're obviously going to take your kid to the hospital. And it was in that weekend when parents began to learn that their children had tested positive for E. coli. Many parents I've talked to said they did not receive any communication from the daycare until Monday when the outbreak was declared by public health officials. As of Wednesday, there are 310 confirmed cases. 21 children are in hospital and seven of them are receiving dialysis. And just for context, Canada gets around usually like 450 cases of E. coli per year.

So this is 310 in this specific incident. It's a lot for one outbreak. Do we have a sense of how serious these cases are that we've seen from these daycares? This particular strain of E. coli is much worse than your sort of quote-unquote typical strain of E. coli. From what I'm understanding, there's a condition like HUS is the condition that essentially is what's causing these kids to need dialysis, right? Yes. It is called hemolytic uremic syndrome. And essentially it damages kidney function, which is obviously very worrisome and explains why there are so many kids in hospital and why dialysis is required for a lot of these kids. I mean, this is pretty scary. These are

young kids. If you've got a kid in the hospital and their kidneys are not functioning, that's a pretty scary time. Oh, it's terrifying. And as one father I spoke to who has a son in one of these daycares said, sending your kid to daycare is the ultimate trust. Asking someone to care for your child is the ultimate trust. And this is, in his words, the ultimate betrayal of that trust. Yeah. So we know these kids were at daycare, it sounds like, when they got sick. How many daycares were affected by this? And what do we know about them, Dave? There were 11 daycares closed following the

outbreak. Six of them are run by a company called Fueling Brains Academy. The other five are not under that company's umbrella, but all 11 share a kitchen. And health officials believe there is a very strong likelihood that that kitchen is the source of the outbreak. We know that the source is very likely linked with the shared kitchen, but we do not know what in the kitchen caused it at this time this information will be an important piece to the puzzle on how to move forward what do we know about this company that runs the daycare so fueling brains so fueling brains started in calgary in 2012 under the name Kids U. Since then, it has expanded into Saskatchewan and the United States. It cares for about 20,000 children in total throughout all of its locations.

That sounds like a pretty big company. Like, are daycare centers often that big? It is a pretty big company. I think it would definitely be on the larger end of for-profit care. I mean, within the nonprofit world, I don't think there's any that big. But this is a for-profit center. This is a for-profit center. And in the world of for-profit care in Canada, it's not unheard of to have chains that have three, four, five, six, seven locations. But this is certainly on the bigger end of that world. All right, let's come back to this kitchen that you mentioned a little earlier there, Dave. The kitchen is called Fueling Minds. The daycare is called Fueling Brains. And these are separate

entities, even though they sound very similar, but they are owned by the same people. So what do we know about this kitchen? So public health authorities conducted an inspection of the kitchen on September 5th, the day after the outbreak was declared. And that inspection report shows some pretty shocking discoveries, including the fact that health inspectors witnessed live cockroaches in the dishwashing area and found a trap that contained at least 20 dead cockroaches. Okay. Investigators also found that the kitchen did not have the proper equipment for storing food

to travel to other centers where it would be delivering those food and it all the kitchen was also found to have a sewer gas smell there are also inspection reports going back to 2021 that show some minor violations as well. And so in the wake of this inspection report, a lot of people are saying this kitchen should never have been allowed to operate. People should have seen red flags in the lead up to this. How is that kitchen still open if it had issues like this? Like, isn't it the government's responsibility to make sure that these kitchens are running properly and are clean? Certainly it is.

And to be fair, it is not uncommon for kitchens to be flagged for certain issues of noncompliance. And public health officials had said that at the time the outbreak was declared, this kitchen was in compliance with public health guidelines. So clearly, some level of greater oversight is required. It's funny because I was looking at the catering company's website, this kitchen, and they really tout the fact that they're making, you know, healthy food that is designed for what kids like to eat. It's supposed to be good for you. Like, I imagine that would be a selling point for parents when you're looking, you know, to put your kid in daycare if they've got good, healthy food for your kid to eat.

It was a big selling point for many of those parents. I've talked to several who said the food program was actually a big part of why they sent their children to those daycares. And even one parent I spoke to had said, you know, in doing his research of companies of where to send his child to care, he had looked up the inspection reports of the center itself without realizing that the kitchen is a separate entity and therefore its reports were not what he discovered when he went researching the actual childcare location. So how common is it that a daycare would use a centralized kitchen like that to source its food? It's pretty common. Yeah, many don't have room for a kitchen or just don't have kitchen facilities included in the building. Plus, running a kitchen can be pretty costly for a child care center, right?

You have to have the space. You have to hire a cook. You need an industrial strength dishwasher. So it comes with a lot of costs and a lot of other sort of requirements requirements too, right, of maintaining a kitchen. And so instead, many child care centers will outsource that to a caterer or some other kitchen food provider. So it's like a cost-saving method, and I guess it's more efficient that way. For many of them, yeah. And I know you have talked to several parents who have kids at the daycare centers in Calgary, Dave, who were affected by this.

What have you heard from these parents? They're angry. They're sad. They're frustrated. Many are wondering how this could ever have happened, quite understandably. And many are angry that the company is not communicating as clearly as they could be in these parents' minds. Can you tell me more about that? Like, what do they mean when they say that?

Well, I just spoke to one parent who said, you know, they learned about the E. coli outbreak in the weekend leading up to September 4th. And so it was known amongst parents that this was happening, but they didn't hear from the daycare operator until the Monday. Many others have said that they want refunds for their September fees, which they've already been charged. And the company has said that they will offer credit for days missed. And as many parents have pointed out, credit is no use to someone who isn't coming

back because they're going to find another child care to go to. And many who have asked for refunds or inquired about the possibility say they have heard nothing from the company in response to that. You mentioned that sounds like parents are looking at other child care options after this incident. How could they not be? Yes. I think some have decided that they are not returning. Many others, I think, are still on the fence, wondering what this company can do to regain their trust. And they will see over the next week or two if they are comfortable with returning their kid to care. There isn't a whole lot of childcare in this country. As anyone who has had their children in

childcare knows, it can be quite difficult to find a spot for your kid. Wait lists can be incredibly long. And so there may very well be some parents in these affected centers whose only options are to return their kids to care at those centers or scramble to look after them themselves, meaning they might not be able to immediately find another child care provider for their kids. Yeah. I talked to one mother who said she is still on the fence about returning her child to care, but the thought right now of her child eating food made or provided by that child

care company just horrifies her. And I'm sure many parents with kids in child care across the country are asking a lot of questions to the directors of their child care centers about food preparation and food handling and the overall safety of things because an experience like this, an incident like this, is just so rattling for so many good reasons that I think people are understandably uneasy at the moment. We'll be right back. Well, let's talk a little bit more broadly then about how this stuff usually works with child care.

So you mentioned that there were concerns from parents about the fact that they hadn't heard about this outbreak from the daycare center. How do daycare centers normally handle communications around issues like this, like around an outbreak at the center? They're all different. I think once a sort of public health declaration has gone out, I would be sure that they are obligated to inform families. But prior to that, I think there would be different philosophies amongst different daycares. If there was, you know, a GI incident going around kids at a center, you might have directors who send out a communications to parents saying, just to let you all know, we're experiencing this. Others may not. And it is worth noting that there has been a class action lawsuit launched against the daycare companies that were involved in this. It alleges that, quote, as a result of negligence, unsanitary and unsafe food storage, preparation and handling practices, it resulted in these students suffering, end quote. So Dave,

how has the main daycare company that we've been talking about, Fueling Brains, how have they responded to this since the outbreak was declared? Well, in response to the class action lawsuit, the founders released a statement that said, and I quote, the health and safety of our children, parents, and staff continues to be our priority as we work through this challenging time. The exact source of the outbreak has still not been identified, and we are continuing to review our policies, procedures, and sourcing related to food services for our facilities. What responsibility does the provincial government have in all of this?

Many people are upset at what they say is a slow response from the province. The outbreak was declared on September 4th, and only this week did officials hold their first press conference about it. And at that press conference, officials said that initially they did not feel that there was urgency to address it right away. Hmm. Now that they have held that press conference, they certainly seem to be taking it much more seriously than they did last week. And I'm sure that is in large part, if not entirely, in response to the fact that cases have skyrocketed since last week. And we now do have a much fuller picture of just how serious this thing is. These daycares in Calgary, Fueling Brains, this is a for-profit company, as we

mentioned earlier. And we have talked about this model of child care in previous episodes and some of the concerns around it. So I'm wondering, how does this situation fit into the broader discussion around for-profit child care in Canada? This outbreak has brought to the surface once again questions and concerns about the role for-profit care should be playing in a publicly funded system. One mother I spoke to had said the whole experience so far is to her proof that the company is putting profits ahead of its concern for kids. And studies have shown that on the whole, for-profit care tends to provide a lower quality of care than compared to not-for-profits. And one of the ways that that happens is that within for-profit, one of the best ways to minimize your expenses is in staffing costs. Whereas people in a nonprofit world might be more likely to have more than just the minimum of staff on hand and pay them well and give them benefits. And those people are

connected to centers in a way that the turnover at a lot of for-profit centers are not. So right now, the Canada-wide early learning and child care deal, which most people would probably know better as the $10 a day child care program. Right. This is what we talked about last time you were here. Yes. Yes. Has entered its expansion phase. So the first phase of the program was to reduce fees by an average of 50% across the country. It has done that phenomenally well. Now it has entered a more difficult and more complicated phase of expansion. So, for example, in Ontario, the province is supposed to build something like 53,000 new childcare spaces by the end of 2026. That seems like a lot. It's a lot. The total numbers across the end of 2026. That seems like a lot.

It's a lot. The total numbers across the country are a lot. And it is a much more complicated process than lowering fees is. Not to suggest that lowering fees is easy, but expansion is much harder. And as expansion plans have been drawn up, there has been a lot of advocacy from the for-profit world that they should be able to participate, sometimes quite aggressively, in these expansion plans. They're saying, you need this huge number of spaces by 2026, which is coming up really fast, we're the ones with the money to make it happen. And again, this would be the counter argument from child care advocates is that given that we know that on the whole, for-profit providers tend to produce a lower quality of care,

what role do we want them playing in the expansion under the federal program? Because how expansion goes over the next several years will probably largely determine just what kind of publicly funded child care system we have in this country. And so, again, in the minds of child care advocates, they would say that as we're just sort of getting going on this expansion phase, it's a sort of very critical time for deciding what role we want for profit providers playing in it. Before I let you go, Dave, I mean, it sounds like you have spoken to a lot of concerned parents. Parents who have their kids in care especially are really thinking about things these days. What kind of, I guess, questions or things that can parents ask their daycares to maybe put their mind at ease? Well, they could start by talking to the director of their centers about food handling and food preparation. You can also look up inspection reports online

to see where your child care center has perhaps been in noncompliance. So those should be available publicly then? Those should all be available publicly. I think every parent with a child in daycare right now has been probably rattled by this story. Because this is a parent's nightmare. And it has sort of shaken many people's confidence in child care generally, I'm sure. At least to the point where they have questions and they just need to be put at ease. Dave, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.

Thank you for having me. That's it for today. I'm Mainika Raman-Wells. Our producers are Madeline White, Cheryl Sutherland, and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Adrienne Chung is our senior producer,

and Angela Pachenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you next week.