With the Regina Farmers Market set to open its first outdoor market of the season on Saturday, the Newcomers World Market won’t be following suit after it shut down at the end of April due to health regulations.
The market opened in June 2017 and is hosted by the Westminster United Church. It was a place for people who were new to Canada to sell food from their countries, with around 19 countries represented at previous markets.
In a statement the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) said, “We received a complaint regarding the Newcomers Market at Westminster United Church so our inspectors met with market organizers in early April to discuss the market and food safety.”
Adding, “as a result of this meeting the church decided to discontinue the market. There was no closure action taken by the SHA.”
While the Regina Farmers Market has been targeted on social media as the one who made the complaint, executive director, Nikko Snyder says the market was only asking questions after vendors from the Newcomers Market were turned down by the SHA.
“Probably two or three of them have applied to the Farmers Market over the past couple of years and unfortunately when they had to go through our approval process which involves approval by the SHA- we have to submit recipes and ingredients to the SHA and unfortunately in some cases products are turned down,” Snyder said.
“That’s when we became aware that some of these folks are operating out of a home kitchen when ultimately they would need to be preparing their food from a licensed kitchen. So, unfortunately, we had to turn these folks away.”
Snyder says the market asked for clarification from its health inspection with the SHA, to better understand why the same regulations were being enforced differently.
“When we reached out to the SHA it was with the intention of trying to get some clarification of both the Newcomers Market and also there are lots of other events in the city that are happening. Although the same regulations apply to everybody, they’re being enforced differently,” Snyder said.
Rev. Darrell Reine with Westminster United Church told Global News that because of the language barriers and regulations they didn’t feel like they could get vendors to where they needed to be to sell their product at the market, so they chose to shut down.
Snyder says there needs to be more flexibility to ease the struggles of launching a new business, something she sees with her own vendors.
“A lot of folks are starting their small business from their home and that’s something we encourage, but unfortunately we come up against a lot of regulations,” Snyder said.
“I would never want to put public health at risk and I know the regulations are based in what is safe for the public. But with that said, as our culture changes and we become more diverse, the regulations have to keep up and I think that’s where we’re falling short.”
Just last month, Sumaira Atif brought her company Karachi Foods to the Regina Farmers Market. She says strict regulations from the SHA around sampling prevent her from growing her business.
“We sell Indian foods and Pakistani foods,” Atif said. ” If we’re allowed to sample in the Farmers Market our sales would be double, because people don’t know the taste of the foods.”
In order to sell hot food outside of a restaurant or food truck, vendors are required to have a temporary food permit, with only a handful available per year.
“Even if you rent a licensed kitchen and come with your warmers and have your hand wash station and all of the things required from the SHA, you can only do that 12 times a year,” Snyder said.
Not only that, anything considered high risk like meat or dairy, must be prepared in a licensed commercial kitchen.
“There’s a whole amazing variety of products out there and we have people approaching the market on a daily and weekly basis and a lot of these businesses are micro,” Snyder said. “It’s just really hard when you’re required to rent a commercial kitchen in order to be able to do that.”
While many would like to see the Newcomers Market return, the SHA says it’s open to having discussions with market organizers in order to find a solution that allows the market to continue and ensure food safety.
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