The topic: Managing and preventing concussions in British Columbia’s youth sports leagues.

Note: Please see the annotations made to the pages below on DocumentCloud

What’s new:

The Concussion Awareness Training Tool was introduced in late 2015 to help educate parents and young athletes about concussions, but doctors and officials suggest that gaps still exist in British Columbia’s approach to treating concussions.

Why it’s important:

The province’s ministry of health identified that between 2001 and 2010, 22.6 per cent of head injuries were suffered by kids ages one to 19. Moreover, 12.9 per cent of all head injury hospitalizations were concussions, according to briefing notes prepared for health minister Terry Lake.

The documents outline a recommended response by the minister in conjunction with the B.C. Injury Research and Prevention Unit (BCIRPU), who in fall 2015, introduced the final stage of the Concussion Awareness Training Tool (CATT).

The tool’s purpose is to serve as a resource that supports the “development of a free online concussion awareness training tool that provides toolkits to B.C. health professionals, educators, players, coaches and trainers,” the document said.

The Sept. 14, 2014, briefing notes were obtained under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Dr. Shelina Babul is the associate director of both the BCIRPU and the B.C. Children’s Hospital, specializing in concussion research as well as sports injury prevention and rehabilitation.

Babul helped develop the CATT and co-authored The Burden of Concussion Among Children & Youth in British Columbia—a report that according to the briefing notes, was co-funded by the province’s health ministry.

The tool has already been adopted by 15 sports associations and schools, and over 23,000 British Columbians have completed the online training, Babul said.

Babul said that reform was needed prior to the development of the website to address the lack of awareness among medical professionals, parents, coaches and young athletes about diagnosing concussions and preventing future head injuries.

“It was built on evidence based resources and developed through an environmental scan to see what existed at the time and what were gaps in those handful of resources,” Babul said in an email.

“We saw what the identified needs were and we developed a new resource.”

However, Babul said that a void still exists in the concussion education system. She isn’t alone.

Dr. Moira Stilwell is the former Minister of Social Development for B.C. The document details how Stilwell put forth a private legislation in 2012 known as the Return to Learn and Return to Play protocols that suggested guidelines for a student’s return to academics and athletics after a concussion.

The legislation was rejected, and according to Stilwell, has yet to be revisited by the provincial government.

What the government says:

Lake has said that that he wants to review how the programs like the CATT are progressing before pursuing legislature similar to Rowan’s Law—an Ontario bill that was passed in 2016 to manage and prevent concussions in youth sports.

The law prompted discussion surrounding whether other provinces should adopt a similar legislature.

Lori Cascaden, a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Health, said that “legislation of this nature is not currently being contemplated” and that the ministry “continues to review best practices regarding concussions” in an email statement.

What others say:

Dr. Ian Gillespie is a former president of the B.C. Medical Association. Gillespie said that the online tool is a strong step towards developing an educational protocol for medical professionals, sports leagues and athletes about concussion diagnosis and prevention.

But it’s just the start.

“Sometimes if a scan is done and nothing shows up they may be sent away,” Gillespie said.  “The assessment is still not standardized yet in emergency departments and there often isn’t attention to some of the cognitive consequences experienced by a person afterwards.”

What’s next:

The 2016 federal budget dedicated $1.4 billion towards the Pan-Canadian Concussion Strategy. B.C’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development are participating alongside the rest of Canada’s provinces and territories.

Cascaden referred to the strategy as a “national harmonized policy approach,” designed to research a method of implementing a Canada-wide plan for managing and preventing concussions.

Proof of Completed requests:

Federal previously released:

RCMP and Soccer Gambling Ring Investigation

Federal: 

Provincial (Newfoundland and Labrador):

Acknowledgment Letter EDU 015 2017 (provincial)

AtippRequest-2017-03-09 cap-and-trade

Municipal (City of St. John’s, Newfoundland:

MA 27 2017 – transfer to City of St. John’s (municipal request)

Ottawa’s Kitchissippi Ward recorded the highest number of complaints about discoloured water in 2016, according to an analysis of a database used by the city to track service requests.

The City of Ottawa received 36 requests last year to “investigate discoloured water” in the ward—a modest figure compared to the 14,102 requests made in Kitchissippi as a whole.

However, the ward received double the requests of the next closest ward, Rideau-Rockcliffe, which received 18 requests in comparison.

The results change slightly when adjusted for per capita—8.2 requests in Kitchissippi and 4.7 in Rideau-Rockcliffe.

The rise in complaints, said Kitchissippi Ward Coun. Jeff Leiper, were due to road maintenance and construction projects resulting from federal stimulus money, the Ottawa River Action Plan and the scheduled maintenance of water mains beneath some of the ward’s older streets.

“Last year there were a few more streets that were done through the program of the Ottawa River Action Plan, which provides money for making repairs for storm and sewage repair,” Leiper said. “We had federal stimulus money that was being spent on the ward—Orrin Avenue and Irving Avenue were stimulus projects.”

The Ottawa River Action Plan was introduced in 2010 to prevent sewage overflows and storm water from entering the Ottawa River, which borders the north end of Kitchissippi Ward and serves as the city’s water supply after being filtered through several processes of purification.

The typical occurrence that prompts requests to inspect water quality is a rusty, yellow, or discoloured tone to the water, according to the City of Ottawa’s water quality webpage.

Penny Wilson, water quality supervisor for the City of Ottawa, said that water discolouration arises in areas close to construction or in areas of low water usage. However, Wilson said home and business owners should not be worried.

“This is a fairly common occurrence, and is normally solved by flushing the main through a hydrant. Please note that these low levels of iron, while not pleasing to the eye, are not a health issue.”

The month that garnered the most service requests to investigate water quality was July. The nine requests that were recorded correspond to what Leiper called the “Spencer Street rebuild,” which began in June and provoked road closures throughout July.

The purpose of the rebuild was to repair the cast iron water mains beneath the street. Once underway, much of the street was closed off and residents and building owners were placed on a “temporary water supply”—a frequent precaution taken by the city when repairing water mains.

Tap water sourced from a street’s temporary water supply often appears discoloured, but this is not a reason for concern.

Tammy Rose, director of water services for the City of Ottawa, reiterated that there was no reason for alarm and that all of the requests were addressed without a complication.

“Two requests were resolved by phone and did not require an on-site response. Staff investigated seven requests related to a water main construction project in the neighbourhood,” Rose said. “This is not uncommon during construction on cast iron water mains.”

Spencer Street was not the only road that required maintenance. Mulvihill Avenue and Lyman Street were two other examples within the ward that were in need of repair.

Leiper is optimistic that less road rebuilds and maintenance will be required throughout his ward in 2017 after a busy period of construction last year.

“This year we are mainly looking at Iona Street and Loretta Avenue, and only half of Loretta is being done. I anticipate that we can see two-thirds the number that we saw in 2016.”

Rising operating expenses represent Shopify’s commitment to expansion, but in the tech industry only time will tell whether 2016’s acquisitions will correspond to a sustained increase in revenue, experts say.

Shopify’s revenues increased by 91.7 per cent over the last three quarters of their 2016 fiscal year compared to the same period the previous year, according to an analysis of its third quarter results.

But Shopify’s increase in revenue was matched by a 91 per cent increase in total operating expenses. Packaged within that increase is their acquisition of Kit CRM and Boltmade, as well as new Shopify facilities being opened in Toronto and Waterloo.

Together, an 88.5 per cent increase in sales and marketing, a 90.5 per cent increase in research and development and a 101.2 per cent increase in administrative expenses resulted in a subsequent 147.9 per cent rise in loss from operations over three quarters ending on Sept. 30, 2016.

A near-doubling of all operating expenses is characteristic of a tech corporation hoping to develop an advantage over its competitors, says Dr. Ian Lee, who specializes in strategic management and international business at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University.

“I wouldn’t be worried about net loss in the tech industry as long as revenue is increasing and they are creating value for customers and shareholders,” Lee said.

Shopify’s net loss grew by 112.2 per cent over three quarters in 2016 compared with net loss recorded from the same period in 2015.

However, rising net losses haven’t affected investor confidence in the e-sales platform, who went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015. In May 2015 Shopify’s stock was valued at just over $20 a share. As of Feb. 3, it stands at $52.12 a share.

Chart representation of Shopify’s share price since IPO on NYSE. by AndrewSavory on TradingView.com

Lee believes that Shopify’s rising share price lends itself to their ability to create value for customers and to differentiate themselves from new entrants into the e-commerce market.

Shopify has made a growing investment in research and development mainly through acquisitions like Boltmade, a product design firm intended to “accelerate the development of the Shopify Plus product offering,” according to a Shopify press release.

Shopify Plus was launched in 2014 to help the core of small and medium sized businesses deal with a higher volume of sales. The mobile application has grown to service over 1,000 merchants and has helped Shopify separate itself from competition and is part of the 119.7 per cent increase in revenue generated from merchant solutions between three quarters ending in 2016 and 2015.

Value in the tech industry is largely dependent upon innovation, but Dr. Alejandro Ramirez believes that Shopify is well-positioned for future success, despite rising operating costs and the cost of recent acquisitions.

“More businesses are realizing they need to be available online an mobile through apps. Shopify sells you a presence that is accessible and easy to use for customers. They have a large hand in that market,” said Ramirez, who teaches about emergent information technologies and social software at the Sprott School of Business.

“The moment in which total operating expenses exceeds revenue, then you have a problem.”

Shopify’s revenues increased by 88.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2016, which as evidenced by an analysis of the company’s most recent third quarter, is 1.1 per cent higher than the 87.5 increase in total operating expenses for the same period.

Ramirez cautioned that Shopify’s success will depend on whether they can maintain a positive differential between revenues and expenses while awaiting a potential sustained increase in revenue and reduced operating costs resulting from recent acquisitions like Boltmade Kit CRM.

Regarding the short and long term financial impact of recent acquisitions, Samantha Tam, a Shopify media representative, declined to provide comment on operating expenses and said “opinion based or qualitative statements cannot be provided until mid-February.”

Shopify’s annual report will be released on February 15, 2017.

Test example of Shopify’s stock chart. by AndrewSavory on TradingView.com