23 restaurants fined or closed by Manitoba Health

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This article was published 15/06/2015 (3791 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Health busts them and names them: Restaurants punished for violating health rules have to live with that.

Scott Jocelyn, executive director of the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association, said there’s nothing food providers can do to avoid being named on the province’s website if they are closed or fined for health violations.

“It is a reality,” Jocelyn said.

“It’s something we work with. Food safety is important. You don’t want people to have a negative experience when they come.

“If it helps keep people safe, it serves its purpose.”

Mike LeBlanc, Manitoba Health’s chief public health inspector, said it’s all to ensure the public knows what is going on when they walk through the doors of a restaurant or special event, or get a quick bite to eat at a mobile vendor.

“We want to be open and transparent,” LeBlanc said Monday.

“Including restaurants, grocery stores, special events, and mobile carts, there are 10,500 places we check and the vast majority of them are in compliance. We probably closed 40 to 50 places in the last year and right now there are a handful still closed.

“But, in general, restaurants are in compliance.”

The most recent restaurant closure was last week when longtime Pembina Highway fixture, the Round Table Steakhouse & Pub, was shuttered by Manitoba Health.

While a placard on the door said the closure was “due to non-compliance with regulations under the Public Health Act or a Municipal Bylaw,” a provincial website says it was due to the “presence of rodents” and because it has stored and prepared food “under insanitary conditions.”

Kristjan Kristjansson, owner of the Round Table, said they were hoping to reopen today, but are now looking at Wednesday at 2 p.m.

“We’ll be doing something special for our patrons,” Kristjansson said.

“And we’ll continue to do what we always do. We understand everybody has feelings, but we have never compromised our guests. It will never happen again.”

Kristjannson said the pest company they have been dealing with for decades has been searching for how the mice got into the restaurant, while other companies have launched a large cleaning effort and renovations.

“Our biggest challenge is how they got in,” he said.

“It is not like the doors are open and they came in. An access point the size of a dime is how they can get it. It takes time to find it.”

Kristjansson said the building is 40 years old and they have never had a problem with mice. He said he believes they got in because of cracks in the foundation caused by the trains going by behind the restaurant.

“It is amazing how many more trains go by now,” he said.

“My office is at the back and people joke about how my coffee is shaking.”

Since the beginning of this year, there have been eight restaurants across the province closed due to health violations, one of which has been outside Winnipeg.

During the same period, there have been 15 restaurants fined for health violations, including nine outside Winnipeg.

LeBlanc said his department hasn’t noted any trends with food service violations.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca