End to wastewater monitoring program in Ontario 'frustrating,' researcher says

The province's decision to scrap a program to test wastewater means research being done at the University of Waterloo will come to an end.

Mark Servos is a biology professor at UW and the Canada research chair in water quality protection. He's been leading research into the surveillance program for the Region of Waterloo and other regions in the province and says they looked for more than just COVID-19 markers in the water. The researchers also were able to track levels of influenza A, influenza B, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and other contaminants.

Servos says he's disappointed funding for the wastewater testing will end as of July 31.

"It's going to essentially leave the public health units without this tool to be able to plan for hospitalizations and increases and changes in these respiratory viruses," he said.

The province announced earlier this month it was cutting funding for the program, which has been run by a dozen universities and research sites, through funding from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. 

Ministry spokesperson Gary Wheeler said in an email to CBC News the move will "avoid duplication" with a federal program. 

WATCH | Sudden cut to wastewater testing 'frustrating' for researcher:

Sudden cut to wastewater testing 'frustrating' for researcher

6 months ago

Duration 3:04

The Ontario government has scrapped a program that tested wastewater to monitor the level of COVID-19 in the population. The program evolved to test for influenza A and B and for drug use in the water system. This decision will shut down research at the University of Waterloo. Mark Servos, a biology professor at the Univeristy of Waterloo and the Canada research chair in water quality protection, sat down with CBC K-W's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris to talk about the impact the cancellation will have on what has been a successful program.

'A valuable tool'

The move has been criticized by some, including Dr. Nicola Mercer, the medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

"The WDG Public Health board of health believes that continuing the wastewater surveillance program is a valuable tool to protect the health of our region. With their support, I will continue to work with the province to explore ways to keep this information available to us," Mercer said in an emailed statement.

Dr. Thomas Piggott, the medical officer of health in Peterborough, said on the social media website X, formerly Twitter, that he was "deeply disappointed" that funding had been cut.

"The program costs are a small fraction of what individual-level testing for infectious disease are and we've learned are a really efficient and helpful way to monitor community transmission of COVID-19 and other pathogens," Piggott wrote.

CBC News asked Region of Waterloo Public Health for comment on the program coming to an end, but the agency said only that national data will continue to be available through the federal government's website. 

NDP MPP Chandra Pasma, who represents Ottawa West-Nepean, shared a letter on X signed by herself and three other NDP MPPs to the province asking the ministry to reconsider the decision to cancel the program.

The letter says the MPPs "fail to grasp why Ontario would close labs" because "this research has been shown to save costs for our health-care system."

Federal agency to expand Ontario testing sites

Servos said the work he does through the University of Waterloo is not part of the federal program run by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

He said the national agency "may pick up some of the sites in Ontario, but there's been no communication as to what that plan or strategy might be."

A spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada told CBC News in an email that in Ontario, four sites in Toronto are currently part of the federal monitoring program.

"Work is underway to expand federal testing in Ontario as well as other provinces. The current expansion plans in Ontario aim to establish federal testing in four additional cities," the statement said.

"PHAC and Statistics Canada are collaborating with Ontario partners to determine testing locations and implement testing ahead of the next influenza season."

The spokesperson did not answer whether Waterloo region might be considered for one of the four additional sites for wastewater testing and did not indicate what other cities are being considered.

The executive director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, however, has said testing will continue in the Windsor-Essex area. Mike McKay told CBC News the institute applied for a federal grant announced in early May — part of the Canada biomedical research fund for pandemic preparedness — and received a $15-million grant over four years.

"At the time we submitted the proposal, we didn't know if the Ontario network would be continuing past this spring, but still the news we heard late last week really blindsided us," McKay said.

'It's a bit frustrating, it's a bit unfortunate'

Servos is not holding out hope of the work continuing at the University of Waterloo.

"It's a bit frustrating, it's a bit unfortunate and maybe perhaps short sighted. We were doing a great job. This was a huge success story during the pandemic," he said.

He added scientists and researchers in the UW lab will likely move on quickly to other projects. But he says he hopes there's a chance to return to it in the future.

"There's just so much opportunity and potential in wastewater. Anything that people put down the toilet we can analyze and we can look for. So it's a very effective way to do surveillance. We can monitor hundreds of thousands of people with a single sample," he said.