All posts by Veronica Green

Health Canada’s “concern” over sugar report

March 20, 2015ATI_AssignmentVeronica Green

The World Health Organization’s sugar report has caused concern for Health Canada. Newly released documents reveal Health Canada’s reaction to the World Health Organization draft guidelines on sugar intake.

The draft guidelines were released in March 2014. In March 2015, the World Health Organization adopted those guidelines into a formal report.

Emails from Health Canada were obtained in an access to information request. The emails detail communication notes and strategy from March 2014. One email states that a “key concern” for Health Canada is the impact of World Health Organization recommendations on food labeling, health claims, and nutrient information provided on the Nutrition Facts Table.

Representatives from Health Canada declined to comment on the access to information request.

Canada, like most countries around the world, has not set a quantified limit for sugar intake. However, it provides dietary guidelines on foods that are high in sugar, states Eric Morisette, the Manager of Media Relations at Health Canada.

To mitigate concern, Health Canada began a policy review for nutrition labeling.

To execute the review, Health Canada opened a comment section on their website in July 2014. It encouraged the public and stakeholders to provide opinions on food labels.

“The new labeling would give consumers the tools that they need to compare foods and make informed and healthier choices,” states Morisette.

Open forums can help Health Canada to make decisions on how to proceed with policy, states Christine LeGrand, Senior Knowledge Translation Specialist at the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation, a key stakeholder, provided comment and recommendation to the forum.

“Even in light of the fact that Health Canada has not yet set a threshold for recommended intake, the Heart and Stroke Foundation can provide a recommendation,” states LeGrand.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation released its own sugar guidelines in August 2014. Their guidelines are aligned with that of the World Health Organization.

“We look to the adoption of those guidelines by Health Canada. That’s ideal. That’s what we would like to see.”

Health Canada closed its discussion forum in September 2014.

“At this point we’re analyzing the information that we collected throughout the process,” states Morisette.

There is no date set for the release of the new position ad no changes have been made to nutrition labels.

“Canada is the first and only country in the world to have proposed multiple approaches to sugar labeling,” states Morisette.

The World Health Organization recommends a reduced intake of free sugars. Free sugars include monosaccharides and disaccharides. They are sugars which are added to foods by the manufacturer, cook, or consumer. They are also sugars that are naturally present in fruit, honey, and syrups. The World Health Organization recommends reducing the intake of free sugars to less than 10 per cent of total energy intake.

This is a “strong recommendation”.

A “conditional recommendation” encourages a further reduction of the intake of free sugars to be below five per cent.

Canada currently follows the Dietary Reference Intakes. The Dietary Reference Intakes provides suggestions for sugar consumption. The suggestions are included in Canada’s Food Guide.

“Those guidelines really assist a government to set policy,” states Laura Pasut, Director of Nutrition for the Canadian Sugar Institute.

Both Health Canada and the United States government contributed to the Dietary Reference Intakes. The guidelines recommends that Canadians consume a maximum level of 25 per cent of energy from their sugars.

“There was a concern that above those levels people would not be consuming enough foods from the various food groups in order to get all their micronutrients,” states Pasut.

LeGrand states that the government and stakeholders, such as the Heart and Stroke Foundation, should continue to focus on providing a common message to Canadians.

“They less sugar they eat, the better they are,” states LeGrand.

Follow below to see a timeline of sugar recommendations.Click the right hand arrow to move through time.

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ASSIGNMENT COMPONENTS

(1) In the link below title “ATIP_Requests you will find copies of at least one request to each three levels of government (1 federal, 2 provincial and 2 municipal). The PDF document also includes three requests for previously released records from the federal government.

ATIP_Requests

(2) My communications were done over the phone. This is an example of one of the out of office requests I received. I did not find the information from many of my ATIPs very useful and therefore further contact was not necessary.

(3) Here is the document cloud link to the ATIP. For this article I used the entire ATIP however, here are two pages which were particularly helpful.

TwoPageExtract

– These are emails from Health Canada concerning the government’s “standard response on sugar.” There is also a memo to an Assistant Deputy Minister of Health.

– These emails/ communications are from Health Canada.

– This information was helpful because it stated that “a key concern” for the federal department would the impact of the World Health Organization sugar guidelines. This was the starting point for my article. From there, I was able to chart Health Canada’s concerns throughout 2014. I did not get comment on whether Health Canada was still concerned or not. However, this provided insight into the current position of Health Canada.

Not in compliance: Ottawa’s top restaurant offenders

March 7, 2015Database_AssignmentVeronica Green

The nation’s capital may be a hotspot for up and coming restaurants, but two Ottawa eateries are racking up food violations according to the municipal body that regulates inspections.

Feleena’s, a Mexican food restaurant in the Glebe, and Stella Osteria, an Italian restaurant in the Byward Market, have accumulated 30 violations each according to data made available by Ottawa Public Health.

Ottawa Public Health is the regulatory body that monitors restaurants in the city. They are mandated under the Ontario Health Protection and Promotion Act.

The 30 violations mean that the restaurants were “not in compliance” with the Health Protection and Promotions Act.

When it comes to food violation reports, ‘not in compliance’ violations can be critical or not critical, explains Brenda, who did not give her full name, from Ottawa Public Health. “We always use the example of a broken floor tile, that’s a non-critical. Does it have a direct impact in possibly or probably having a negative outcome of food preparation? Less likely.”

Critical infractions include uncooked foods, foods not refrigerated, and contaminated foods.

“When there is a deficiency we will go back and have a reassess date to make sure a restaurant corrects it,” states Kathy Downey, a project manager at Ottawa Public Health, Food Safety and Safe Water.

The most recent report of Feleena’s states the restaurant was in compliance with the Act, but Stella Osteria’s report was not.

Stella Osteria’s most recent ‘not in compliance’ violation was on January 19, 2015. The report issued was a non-critical violation of “sanitation, design and maintenance”. The last critical report for the restaurant was July 2014, when raw foods were not separated from ready-to-eat foods.

Stella Osteria and Feleena’s are not the only Ottawa restaurants with public health violations. Below are the top offenders in Ottawa:

| Create infographics

The critical hazardous food infraction poses a serious health threat to restaurant goers.

“As a chef you have the task of feeding people delicious and exciting meals, but most importantly, you have the responsibility of making sure your food is safe,” states Ariana Emond, a student at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Ottawa.

According to the Food Pages website, Stella Osteria is ranked the #10 restaurant in Ottawa.

Although critical infractions are corrected immediately by the health inspector on site, Downey states that there are implications for repeat offenders such as Feleena’s and Stella Osteria.

“We do have a strategy in place that we would issue a Provincial Offense Notice, which is a ticket,” states Downey.

Each ticket has a fine which is threatening to the restaurant.

Implementing fines are just one way that Ottawa Public Health has been cracking down on Ottawa restaurants.

Legal action has been taken against repeat offenders, states Downey. In the past, some high-risk food establishments have been forced to shut down.

“A consumer going into a restaurant should expect that the restaurant is safe to eat and should expect that it is operating in compliance with regulations,” states Downey.

“The important things by far are the quality of the food, the quality of the service and the hospitality that a restaurant offers me,” states Anne DesBrisay, Ottawa food critic and author of Capital Dining. “It’s cleanliness, it’s a distance between whether it looks like it needs a fresh coat of paint of whether the washrooms look like they haven’t been cleaned in a week.”

Ottawa Public Health encourages patrons to phone in when they notice a potential health or safety risk.

“By not following food safety regulations you risk not only losing customers or even your business, but also any respect you’ve gained and worked for in the industry,” states Emond.

Scroll below to see the Top 25 Ottawa restaurants with violations.

The ashes of the Hagersville fire

February 26, 2015Whatever-happened-to?, Whatever-Happened-To? AssignmentVeronica Green

Twenty-five years ago, vandals lit fire to a stockpile of 14 million tires in Hagersville, Ont. The tire fire that burned for 18 days has impacted waste removal legislation and today, the firefighters who worked to put out the fire are fighting for their lives.

The story made international headlines in February 1990.

“It was pretty remarkable when you got there to see everything,” recalls Dennis Friesen, a firefighter from Simcoe County. “There were hundreds of firefighters involved, doing shifts.”

“We all worked together,” said Friesen, “Anybody that could send crews were sending crews to relieve guys because they were there for so long. We did eight hour shifts.”

Friesen now works as the Assistant Chief of the Norfolk County Fire and Rescue Services. “There’s really nothing there now,” Friesen says of the site.

The 20 foot tall piles of tires are all gone. The 12 acre site has been grown over with grass.

“This opened up a whole new regulation as far as tire storage because these tires were just piled up in one big area,” states Friesen.

The Waste Diversion Act was created in 2002 to monitor the recycling of all forms of waste. The Act created the Waste Diversion Organization. However, there was still no organizational body to regulate the clean-up of tires. One year later, the responsibilities of Waste Diversion Ontario was to monitor a new not-for-profit organization, Ontario Tire Stewardship. The Ontario Tire Stewardship was mandated to clean up all of the tire stockpiles across Ontario.

Julie Kwiecinski of Waste Diversion Ontario states that Hagersville has been influential to tire removal legislation.

“If there’s a lesson to be learned it’s the importance of removing tires stockpiles and that has been the focus of Ontario Tire Stewardship throughout the years. They have made some significant progress in that regard,” states Kwiecinski.

In 2009, the Used Tire Program Plan was submitted by Ontario Tire Stewardship. The plan detailed the removal of all tires in Ontario.

“We actually completed all of that clean-up last year, in 2014, to a tune of 1.6 million tires,” states Krista Cassidy, Manager of Promotions and Education at Ontario Tire Stewardship.

Tire stockpiles are a target for arson and the Hagersville fire is just one example of many tire fires across the country. Tires must be collected because they are a fire hazard, but they also contain chemicals that can run-off into the ground or air when burned.

Twenty-five years ago, the air was thick with chemicals as the tires burned. Benzene, styrene and toluene are three cancerous chemicals found in tires. Toluene and Benzene are also in gasoline.

“We refer to them as the ‘dead-enes’,” states Jeri Ottley, a volunteer firefighter in the Health and Safety department of the Fire Fighters Association of Ontario. “Any chemical that ends in ‘ene’ can make you ‘dead-ene’.”

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Presumptive Legislation covers the health of firefighters. Firefighters can receive compensation for cancers based on their number of years of service.

Since the Hagersville fire, firefighters have put in claims to the WSIB for cancer noting the “Hagersville fire”, states Ottley.

According to Ottley, the number of firefighters who have died is protected by the Workplace Safetyand Insurance Board privacy act.

“There has been a bit of a cancer cluster around Hagersville and for the firefighters,” states Ottley.

“The hard part is for a firefighter to claim. This is why the presumption legislation came in and Hagersville was part of the push,” explains Ottley.

When firefighters claim an illness to WSIB, they must medically prove what they were exposed to and for how long. They then must medically prove that that exposure can cause the kind of cancer that they have.

“Its especially hard for a firefighter, especially a volunteer to be able to say that with facts,” states Ottley.

The site of the Hagersville fire is still monitored to ensure that run-off water is not contaminated with similar chemicals.

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Documentation 1: LA Times News Article

The documentation is a news article.
I found it in my preliminary research or news stories of the event. I did this research on Google and on the Carleton library archives.
The documentation was helpful because it confirmed that the story was, in fact, a significant topic. The article addressed the severity of the chemicals released at the time. This was a starting point for my piece – 25 years later. My initial questions came from this piece.

Documentation 2: April 2009 Press Release from Ontario Tire Stewardship.

The documentation is a press release.
I found it because I googled: “tires, ministry of environment, recycling, 2009, Ontario.”*
The documentation was helpful because it served as a stepping stone in my research. From this press release I knew which official sources to contact and therefore I could create a chronology of legislative events.

*In my search I did not use quotations but it was in that order and with that punctuation.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w-5PvjEHYFLxkoaaexEmb90O1ju1MIWGKpU5pj_xRxo/edit?usp=sharing

Low interest rate affects pension payments of Canadian businesses

January 30, 2015Business AssignmentVeronica Green

The company that brings you the Yellow Pages added $52 million to the amount it owes past employees in the form of benefits such as pensions and medical care. This is 36 percent higher than the sum the company owed this time last year.

The $52 million increase is added to the current value of payments that Yellow Media Inc. will need to pay in the future. The only reason the amount shows up on the balance sheet now is because at some point, Yellow Media Inc. will have to pay this amount.

Doing the math.

The benefit payments are projected payments.

There are two reasons why this amount increased so much in just one year: a change in mortality rate assumptions and a change in the discount rate.

If past employees are expected to live longer, the mortality assumptions will change. This means that potentially people are expected to live longer, causing Yellow Media Inc. to pay benefits for a longer amount of time than they previously expected.

The mortality rate is something that a company expects to change every year.

The discount rate has a greater impact on the projected pension payments than the mortality rate. The discount rate is used to discount the estimated payments a company must make in the future to today’s current value.

The discount rate dropped throughout the 2014 year, creating a crippling effect on the post-benefit payments of Yellow Media Inc.

It is the decline in the discount rate which has increased the future amounts owed by Yellow Media Inc. to the tune of $52 million in one year.

A graph depicting the declining discount rate.

This graph exemplifies how the declining discount rate increases the amount of future payments owed. The graph is based on the following financial statements: September 2014, June 2014, March 2014, and December 2013. This graph was created by the author for the purpose of this article.

This $52 million increase to the company’s benefit payments has nothing to do with the performance of the company in terms of investments.

The consequences.

In response to questions about the increase in pension payments via email, Fiona Story, the Director of Public Relations and Corporate Communications at Yellow Media Inc. said, “It has no impact on our ability to continue making investments in our business operations.”

When asked about the affects of declining discount rates, Professor Lynnette Purda, an Associate Professor of Finance at Queen’s University School of Business said, “Absolutely there can be financial consequences.”

This decrease in the discount rate creates a much larger liability in terms of the present value of what a company will owe and Yellow Media Inc. isn’t alone.

A national trend.

“If you were to look at the financial statements of any public company, you would see declining discount rates broadly,” said Stephen Bonnar, an actuary who works with the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Markets have declined and Canadian companies are currently operating in a low interest-rate environment.

Bonnar explains that discount rates have been declining for some time. “There would have been a slight uptake in 2013, and a continuing drop in 2014,” said Bonnar.

Yellow Media Inc. is one of many who exhibits this trend.

“This is a problem for a lot of organizations and entities,” says Purda. Different companies will handle it in different ways she said.

Companies are still on the hook for obligations like pension payments. They must make these payments to past employees even if they continue to increase like those of Yellow Media Inc.

If the discount rate continues to decrease, many companies may not be able to meet future payments.

There are some solutions. Companies can contribute more to their pension plans or they can change their benefits.

“All of that is very difficult to do,” said Purda.

Booming BC cherry market a signal for free-trade agreements

November 28, 2014Database assignment threeVeronica Green

A unique trade agreement to export Canadian cherries to China could signal much larger free-trade agreements between the two countries.

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in China earlier this month he announced an agreement which detailed the conditions by which BC cherries could be exported to China. The terms of the product agreement are like no other and some experts think that it could open the door for substantial Canada-China trade agreements.

“It could serve as a very good stimulant for future, more in-depth agreements.” said Professor Yanling Wang from Carleton University.

According to Industry Canada data, the value of BC cherry exports to China were 19 times larger in 2013 than in 2010. Also, according to this data, BC is the only province that exports cherries to China.

Bc cherry exports |Create infographics

The Phytosanitary Arrangement signed on signed on Nov. 8 is unlike any other.

A representative from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said that the BC cherry Phytosanitary Arrangement shows the government of China that the cherries being shipped comply with all official plant-health import requirements.

The Phytosanitary Arrangement hasn’t been made public yet, said James Watson from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. However, what makes the arrangement unique is that China agreed to a new cherry sampling process, said Sukpaul Bal, President of the BC Cherry Association.

Much of the negotiations for the Phytosanitary Agreement were around the treatment process and China has agreed to the brown sugar test. The alternative is the cold-treatment test.

According to Bal, not doing a cold treatment test is what makes this deal so attractive to cherry producers.

The brown sugar test samples one per cent of the cherry shipment by crunching up cherries in a mixture of brown sugar and water. After the mixture is left for approximately 10 minutes, if any larva is in the fruit, it would float to the surface. In a cold-treatment test, cherries are held in a room at 0 degrees Celsius for two weeks. Any pests wouldn’t survive that period, said Bal.

“It might open the door for other products in the future,” said Bal about the agreement.

According to some trade experts, this kind of agricultural agreement could open the door to additional trade deals between Canada and China.

There is an appetite for an agreement said Wang. Wang has previously worked as a consultant in the World Bank and as a researcher at the State Economic and Trade Commission, P.R China.

“I think it’s something simple to get the message out that it’s not so difficult – it’s something you could do and it’s something we should do,” said Wang about future trade agreements.

According to Bal there are other industries which are trying to get their products into China as well.

“I know BC blueberries is eager to get into China,” said Bal. “Other countries as well are looking at the steps we took and how we got access into China and are waiting in line to get their product in.”

This could be the start of something more.

“It’s tough to force products on people,” said Bal.

The demand was there in the case of BC cherries.

“Key groups in China were putting internal pressure as well. We were pressuring our government: ‘let’s work with these guys and figure something out,’” said Bal. “It all looks like this deal is going to work well for both sides. Cherries are such a highly valued product out there and we can grow such a nice product in our valley here.”

Bal said he was surprised when he saw Prime Minister Harper talking to Jack Ma, one of China’s most prominent businessmen, about Canadian cherries.

Canada currently exports $3,510,583 worth of cherries to China. Canada’s top five cherry markets are Hong Kong, the United States, Taiwan, China and Belgium.

Importers of Canadian Cherries (Value in Canadian Dollar)

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China and Australia recently signed a free trade agreement.

“That made a lot of Canadians think,” said Wang. Australia and Canada have a lot in common, said Wang, many think that the Australia free trade agreement will have some negative impact on Canadian industries.

“That’s why they felt they needed to move,” said Wang.

Know your money; the key to combat counterfeit currency

October 23, 2014Database assignment twoVeronica Green

In 2013, the city of Ottawa saw a 145 percent rise in counterfeit currency offenses. The increase of counterfeit currency arrests was prominent in almost every city ward.

According to Ottawa Police crime data analysis, Gloucester-Southgate ward had the sharpest increase of cases at 600 per cent.

Counterfeit Currency Rates per Ward:

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Councilor of Bay ward Mark Taylor said that one of the reasons for the numerous cases could be the prominence of small businesses in the Nepean area. The other factor is that there are several banks within the ward and a large percentage of older adults, said Taylor. These older adults, said Taylor, are more apt to raise concerns of counterfeit with a bank teller. “The changeover in currency to the new modern polymer currency has led some people, particularly older adults to wonder what a $20 bill is supposed to look like,” said Taylor.

The $20 bank note denomination was the most widely circulated counterfeit in 2013.

Counterfeit currency is bank notes or coins that have been forged or imitated by anyone other than the Bank of Canada.

“They key is education. If nobody knows what to look for or aren’t bothering to actually authenticate their note at the point of sale, then they are leaving themselves vulnerable to getting a counterfeit note,” said Nish Vair who works in currency and education at the Bank of Canada.

“It’s a matter of actually using that knowledge to train staff and then they have to protect them,” said Vair who provides training for retailers and banks. “That’s how you deter counterfeiting.”

The statistics presented are from the Ottawa Police; however, due to the fact counterfeiting currency is a offense sited in the Criminal Code of Canada, the RCMP investigates these cases.

The RCMP work closely with the Bank of Canada who have recently introduced polymer bank notes to combat counterfeiting.

“Polymer banknotes are among the most advanced bank notes in the world,” said
Vair. “The main reason we switched over to polymer was because it allows us to have more advanced security features and stay ahead of counterfeiters.”

Historically speaking, said Vair, whenever a new series of bank notes are introduced, it is during that transition time that the older series gets counterfeited more.

The most counterfeited bank notes are from the Canadian Journey series, said Vair. The Journey series is still in circulation – and it will be in circulation for a few years to come.

$20 bank note from the Canadian Journey Series, photograph from the Bank of Canada.

The RCMP have raised concerns about counterfeiting in Canada. The RMCP could not be reached for comment on the topic of counterfeit investigations.

The RCMP state that even with advances in technology, no counterfeiter has the ability to produce an exact copy of a bank note.

The Counterfeit Analysis Program (CAP) is a support service that operates under the RCMP Commercial Crime Branch guidance. According to the RCMP website, the program provides counterfeit currency intelligence and analytical support to Canadian law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of counterfeit currency offenses.

Possession, use, or creation of counterfeit currency is an indictable offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Cash is the preferred method of payment for transactions under $25 and the second-most commonly used method of payment for transactions of $26-$100.

In Ontario, according to counterfeit currency statistics from the RCMP, 6,472 bank notes were seized and 16,476 were passed.

The Ottawa Police were unavailable to comment on investigation of counterfeit cases. However, according to the RCMP, large scale counterfeit currency activity in the nation is most often facilitated by organized crime groups who are also involved in other criminal activities such as weapons, offense, drugs and identity left.

Why Ottawa electors are avoiding the polls

September 26, 2014Database assignment oneVeronica Green

Less than half of Ottawa electors cast a vote in the 2010 Ottawa city council election, a mere 44 percent. City council election turnout has declined 9 percent compared to the 2006 election when turnout was 53 percent.

The Rideau-Vanier ward had the lowest turnout at 39 percent, followed by the Gloucester-Southgate ward which had a turnout of 40 percent.

The next municipal election will be held October 27th, 2014.

MUNICIPAL ELECTION VOTER turnout | Create Infographics

Professor Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, who teaches political science at Queen’s University, said that municipal elections have to have low thresholds: “The bottom line is, people have to be elected. It is fair, we have to fill the positions, but is it ideal or desirable? No. That person has to govern the city council with an incomplete mandate. They haven’t heard from majority of the city.”

Rideau-Rockcliffe candidate Tobi Nussbaum said, “That could be a number of different factors, it could be a result of the fact that candidates didn’t do as much outreach and door knocking, that’s a possibility. I think there is a correlation between voting turnout and things like home ownership. It would be interesting to compare the voting record to what one would typically expect to a home owner versus rental split.”

The turnout for the Rideau-Rockcliffe ward was 42 percent. In Rideau-Rockcliffe, the percentage of homes rented is 52.6 percent compared to 47.4 percent who own. This correlation proved true in Rideau-Vanier, the ward with the lowest turnout, which has 72 percent rental homes compared to 28 percent owned.

Rideau-Rockcliffe candidate Tobi Nussbaum, image from his campaign website: www.votetobi.ca

There is another problem associated with turnout: municipal elections are not associated with political parties.

Due to the lack of party identification, Nussbaum said that what he tries to do is have a substantive policy campaign to ensure that he is engaging all the issues that are relevant to the residents of Rideau-Rockcliffe. He has knocked on over 12 000 doors since March.

“There really is no shortcuts, the wonderful thing about democracy is it really is about face to face, meeting one on one, meeting people, knocking on their door, introducing oneself, asking residents what their issues of concern are and listening and learning from that experience. So I’ve done that a lot and I think that’s really critical for a municipal candidate given as there isn’t a party structure behind us,” said Nussbaum.

Goodyear-Grant said that in Ottawa the information demands are higher.

In comparison to Toronto, Goodyear-Grant said candidates John Tory and Olivia Chow are known for their party work. “In that case, you will see high turnout; not because its important for one of the continent’s largest city and not because there has been a lot of media coverage around Ford. Most voters, to the extent that they understand left and right, they can figure out which candidate can stand for that.”

Goodyear-Grant said, “Municipal elections perennially have lower interest and lower stakes than provincial and federal level, but this can be farther from the truth. On things like foreign policy, we all have lots of opinions but these don’t tend to touch our lives.” Goodyear-Grant said, “All the bylaws and regulations, these impact our lives more than most things happening at the foreign level. Citizen’s perception to get involved is skewed, so there’s that problem.”