In the midst of the municipal election campaign, the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health is returning to their great, big conference table at Public Health’s Chancellor’s Way office. On the September agenda, we’re talking about student health, drinking water protection, the drug poisoning crisis, and the health impacts of poverty. Just a light month. Here’s the preview…
NOTE #1: This meeting will held in-person at the Chancellor’s Way office and virtually online. To get the link you will have to send a request to join the meeting via an online form that you can find with the agenda on the WDGPH website. The deadline to send in the request is Wednesday September 2 at 11 am.
NOTE #2: The meeting begins at 2 pm.
MOH Update(s) – Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer will deliver her verbal report on current matters facing Public Health.
PRESENTATIONS:
- School Health Promotion: Choices Rewired
- Poverty Report Series – Chapter Two Release
- From Source to Safety: Drinking Water, Programs and Modernization in WDG
Oral Health Services: 2026 Q1 & Q2 Summary – The first of two consent agenda items, this one covers the numbers from all of Public Health’s oral health programs – including the School Screening Program, Healthy Smiles, and preventative clinics – for the first two quarters of 2026.
Health Protection 2026 Q2 Summary – From inspections at local restaurants, to conditions at pools and spas, to the monitoring of outbreaks in area hospitals and institutions, these are Public Health’s Health Protection numbers from the second quarter of 2026.
School Health Promotion: Choices Rewired – Public health has been working with the two local English school boards to create a program that deals with youth substance use and excessive screen use. The campaign gives parents a simple “Observe, Engage, Lead” framework. First you look for signs of a problem such as mood and behaviour changes or declining school performance and attendance (Observe); then you have an open, non-judgmental conversation where you ask questions, listen and learn (Engage); and then you model good behaviour by demonstrating healthy ways of coping with stress, setting boundaries around substance and screen use, and locking up medications and other substances (Lead). The board will be asked to received the report as information.
Poverty Report Series: Chapter Two Release – This written report was not included in the agenda.
From Source to Safety: Programs and Modernization in WDG – This report provides an overview of Public Health’s drinking-water protection programs and recent efforts to modernize them. A major focus is private wells because many rural residents aren’t connected to municipal water systems and therefore have responsibility for testing and maintaining their own wells. In 2022, environmental conditions such as heavy rainfall, flooding and runoff increased the movement of surface contamination into vulnerable wells, so there’s a unique danger. Public Health will expand private-well sample drop-off locations, expand automated auditing, and continue to develop the automated text-message notification system as part of the plan to ensure water safety.
2025 Opioid Surveillance Update – There is good news to be had in this report. To begin with opioid-related emergency department visits in the region fell 8.6 per cent, to 53 visits per 100,000 residents, and the region’s rate remains below the Ontario average for the seventh consecutive year. In Guelph the decline was nearly 10 per cent, but its rate of 80.3 visits per 100,000 remained about 42 per cent higher than the provincial rate. There were 13 confirmed opioid-related deaths in 2025, with is down from 30 in 2024, producing a 57 per cent decline in the mortality rate, from 8.9 to 3.8 deaths per 100,000—the lowest regional rate since 2015. Seven of those were in Guelph, which is down from 21 the year before. The report credits naloxone distribution and training with helping to turn the tide, but Public Health’s report makes it clear that crisis is not ever. The ER visits and mortality rates are still high, drug supplies can still change rapidly, and there’s a new risk with the addition of sedatives in the supply that naloxone cannot affect.
Grade 7 School Immunization Program – More good news as Public Health is reporting some of the highest coverage rates in Ontario, especially with the HPV vaccine with 75.1 per cent of local 17-year-olds had received it, compared with 53 per cent across Ontario—the highest HPV coverage rate among Ontario public health units. The Hepatitis B coverage also improved sitting at nearly 81 per cent for the last school year compared with 61 per cent provincially in 2024–25. Public Health credits expanded access with clinics at 106 elementary schools, catch-up clinics at 18 high schools, and 18 additional after-hours and rural satellite clinics for their success, as well as targeted communications to the families of eligible students.
WDG Public Health’s Parent Insights Survey – Last year, Public Health conducted a survey of parents and caregivers of children under 6 in the region. What did they learn? Among other things, there are 10 major areas where parents are looking for information or support: mental health and well-being, child behaviour and positive discipline, parenting stress and self-care, illnesses and infections, sleep, social and emotional development, food and nutrition, postpartum health, speech and language development, and breastfeeding. Needs depend on the age of the child, obviously, but there were some commonalities; 86 per cent said their most commonly used sources of information is family and friends, and 76 per cent said they were more likely to participate if programs were free or affordable. The report does note that of the 1,277 respondents 89 per cent were women, 70 per cent were aged 30–39, 85 per cent were Canadian-born, and 97 per cent were English-speaking, so some of the families who face the greatest barriers may be underrepresented.
CLOSED SESSION:
Whatever is being discussed in closed, it’s apparently about “personal matters about an identifiable individual, including BOH employee, and the security of the property of the BOH.”
Guelph Politico 