Ottawa Public Health is looking into issuing a new category of licence for businesses such as salons and tattoo parlours, according to a report on recent efforts to increase health and safety standards across the city.
The report claims many businesses that perform esthetic services for their clients, such as hairdressers, piercing parlours, and pedicurists, run the risk of spreading infections such as Hepatitis B and C, as well as HIV.
Earlier this year, the Ottawa Board of Health asked that Ottawa Public Health explore new ways of identifying and inspecting these kinds of businesses.
The report said OPH is currently exploring the possibility of a new licencing category, to help identify which businesses offering these higher risk esthetic services.
“Licencing is just one of the many things we’re exploring,” says Eric Leclair, a spokesperson for Ottawa Public Health. “It’s a tool that can be used alongside other things like public education and operator training.”
The report details five elements to improving health and safety in Ottawa’s personal service businesses, including more frequent inspections.
According to the report, there are 938 personal service businesses around Ottawa, 205 of which are “high-risk” venues that perform procedures that intentionally break the skin, such as tattoos, piercings, acupuncture, and electrolysis.
Christine Leadman, executive director of the Bank Street BIA, says that tougher regulations increase consumer confidence in businesses.
“If it raises the standard of the operators, I think it’s really important,” says Leadman, whose association includes many hair and beauty salons.
“Any good, clean shop that takes pride in their work shouldn’t have a problem with anything,” says Shawn Carrier, owner of The Inkspot Tattoo and Piercing parlour on Bank Street for more than a decade. “It’ll keep the backalley guys and kitchen tattoo artists ordering their stuff off of eBay out of the industry.”
He says “anyone with half a brain” will welcome more stringent protocols from Ottawa Public Health.