Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 22, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba THRIVE M A N I T O B A GROWING TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY TO BUILD A STRONG MANITOBA It’s always special when kids share their health stories to inspire the community to #GiveBetterFutures for families who need HSC Children’s Hospital, and the 2024 Champion Child has been chosen to represent over 140,000 children who rely on our hospital annually. Meet Janessa Colomb, a brilliant, thoughtful and talented individual with a meaningful story to share. She will join the family of past Champions who raise awareness for our Children’s Hospital locally and at a national and international level through the Children’s Miracle Network program. Janessa lives in Pukatawagan, a First Nations community north of The Pas and 780 km from Winnipeg, but has spent a lot of her young life at HSC Children’s. Starting at age five, Janessa began having reoccurring urinary tract infections. Her parents took her to The Pas Hospital and then she was referred to HSC Children’s where specialists determined Janessa’s kidneys weren’t functioning properly; one was small, and the other was diseased. By age seven, Janessa had reached stage 4 kidney disease with 25% kidney function that continued to decline. Recognizing the need to be closer to the care at Manitoba’s only children’s hospital, Janessa’s parents moved the family to Winnipeg. After care and support from pediatric nephrology specialists and a successful kidney transplant at HSC Children’s Hospital, Janessa is now doing well. She’s a teenager enjoying being back in her community with family and friends, spending time outdoors doing things she loves like fishing and dancing. Janessa’s family will continue to travel to HSC Children’s in Winnipeg so specialists can keep an eye on her health. Between 50–70% of kids treated at HSC Children’s are from Métis, First Nations and Inuit communities and many are far from their homes and cultural supports. That’s why innovative programming like the Indigenous Community Healing Space, generously funded by donors, is so important. This space will provide families with a culturally safe space to heal. The Child Life program at HSC Children’s is also critical for providing comfort to kids like Janessa in hospital. Child Life team members are experts in childhood development and programming includes music therapy, the library program, Children’s Hospital Television (CHTV), special holiday celebrations and of course, play. March is Child Life month and Music Therapy month, a time to celebrate the critical support health care teams provide for families in hospital. Child Life programming at HSC Children’s Hospital is 100% funded by generous donors. Your support means the world to kids like Janessa, and to health care staff who are dedicated to providing the very best care possible. Your present is changing their future. Champion Child from remote northern community shares story of hope Visit goodbear.ca/BetterFutures to learn more. Donate today at goodbear.ca. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2024WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● B3 NEWS I CANADA Cannabis review calls for revised tax for pot producers A GROUP convened by the federal government to study the legis- lation that made cannabis legal is recommending the country review one of the industry’s biggest gripes: excise taxes charged to pot producers. A report compiling 54 recommenda- tions from the five-person expert panel released Thursday urged Finance Can- ada to consider a new model that would increase excise taxes on products with high quantities of tetrahydrocannabi- nol, cannabis’s psychoactive compon- ent and lower fees on those with small- er amounts. It positioned the change as a way to move consumers away from high-THC products. The tax, which the panel called a “substantial burden” for cannabis pro- ducers, amounts to the higher of $1 per gram or a 10 per cent per-gram fee for dried and fresh cannabis, plants and seeds. It was set in 2018, when Canada legalized cannabis and the government expected a gram of pot to sell for $10, at which price 10 per cent is $1. These days, it is easy to find products priced as low as $3.50 a gram, resulting in higher fees for producers who must still pay $1 per gram. “We see an opportunity to update tax policy to reflect the current reality,” the report said. The finding came as the legal canna- bis sector has faced the sobering real- ity that the market isn’t as big — or as easy to navigate — as predicted. Many of the industry’s biggest play- ers, including Canopy Growth Corp., Aurora Cannabis Inc. and Tilray Brands Inc., have spent the last five years laying off workers, closing facili- ties and grappling with balance sheets that reflect a challenging market and a slow crawl toward profitability. Others have already fled the indus- try, selling their businesses or declar- ing bankruptcy. To blame, they say, is a combination of overregulation, a still-mighty illicit market, decreasing prices and in some regions, too many cannabis stores. Many were hopeful the review would give credence to their experiences and if they were lucky, prod the federal gov- ernment toward meaningful change. Shortly after the report was released, Canopy Growth chief executive David Klein said his staff “welcome” the recommendations and encourage the government to use next month’s feder- al budget to “take urgent action on the greatest issues impacting the indus- try.” He named as priorities a review of the excise tax and another to study whether it should be applied to medical products. The recommendations were com- piled over 18 months and go beyond the economics of pot to also delve into Indigenous participation in the sector and the health and safety of Canadians, including youth who may be exposed to cannabis. Large swaths of the report focused on cannabis packaging, which manu- facturers are required to ensure does not entice youth to try their products. Thus, it cannot feature cartoons or ce- lebrity endorsements. The report said Health Canada should revise packaging rules to allow companies to include QR codes to con- vey credible information about canna- bis or even labels saying a product is certifiably organic or recyclable. It also advocated for Health Canada to develop a “standard dose,” which companies could use to help convey the amount of a product that should be con- sumed at one time. “This could be an effective nudge for cannabis consumers to move toward lower-risk cannabis use behaviours,” said the report. Despite cautioning that such a stan- dard has been “elusive for several years” because cannabis is consumed, metabolized and experienced in many different ways, it said the measure would be a worthwhile task for Health Canada. While the report outlined several areas of change, it also reaffirmed some of the country’s existing pot poli- cies, like the 10 milligram per package limit for THC. The panel said the industry felt rais- ing the limit would help it squeeze out illicit sellers with products containing higher THC amounts and prices for ed- ibles that can be up to 90 per cent lower than legal counterparts. Public health stakeholders, on the other hand, supported maintaining the current limit because they saw a rise in unintentional cannabis poisonings among children since legalization and were concerned the severity of these incidents would only climb with a greater THC threshold. “Ultimately, we felt that there are too many unknowns and too much uncer- tainty about the likely consequences of increasing the amount of THC in these products,” the panel said. “Therefore, we are of the view that prudence is warranted here and ac- cordingly, we recommend that the current limit be maintained and that research be undertaken that will fill critical knowledge gaps related to this issue.” Health Canada said Thursday it is reviewing the panel’s conclusions and will provide recommendations to the federal government on potential next steps. It offered no timeline on when those suggestions may be delivered. The government was late to launch the panel’s review of the Cannabis Act, which was due to begin around the three-year anniversary of legal- ization but was pushed back when the COVID-19 pandemic materialized. The review chaired by Morris Rosen- berg, a former deputy minister of jus- tice and deputy attorney general of Canada, began in September 2022. By the time it concluded, panellists had heard from 600 participants, in- cluding cannabis retailers, growers, medical professionals, public health advocates and consumers. — The Canadian Press TARA DESCHAMPS TIJANA MARTIN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES A group studying Canada’s cannabis legislation is pressing for a change to excise taxes to move consumers away from products high in THC. ;