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Thursday, October 20, 2011 Capital News
OPINION
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▼ OUR VIEW
Monitoring the buzz
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nsomnia, anxiety, allergic reactions, palpitations and withdrawal—a list of symptoms from an illegal drug? No, it’s what adults have known for years are the downsides of drinking too much coffee and tea. Unfortunately, now the kids are emulating their parents by drinking energy drinks that typically have twice the caffeine of pop and just about as much as a cup of drip coffee. The kids think these drinks
are cool, their logos are eyecatching and they are easy to get at corner stores and grocery outlets. A single can of Red Bull or Monster falls within Health Canada guidelines for caffeine consumption for older teens, but what happens if two or more are consumed in a day? Should the government have taken a tougher stance and prevented these drinks from being sold anywhere but pharmacies? The more adults try to regu-
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late teen behaviour, the more challenges they face. And the fact that caffeine is mildly addictive is not lost on companies marketing their products to kids in new and innovative ways. The popularity of these beverages among teens looking for a light buzz is reminiscent of the older generations’ interest in cigarettes. For teens, water is boring, pop is old-school and so is juice, although neither are great as they are full of sugar.
But are we comfortable with kids picking up an energy drink at lunch or on the way home from school? At the very least, parents should be educating themselves as to what their children are ingesting. Health Canada’s suggested limits for daily caffeine intake are roughly 2.5 mg per kilogram of body weight. Parents can at least use the new content disclosure rules to find out whether their kids’ drinks measure up.
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Inaction to resolve treaty settlements becoming expensive
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inally, somebody in the B.C. treaty negotiation system has come out and said it. Releasing the B.C. Treaty Commission’s 19th annual report last week, Chief Commissioner Sophie Pierre announced she has asked for a one-year extension to her term, to see the organization through its second decade. And if things don’t change, particularly in Ottawa, then “shut ’er down.” The commission is the independent “keeper of the process,” and the chief commissioner is appointed by agreement between the federal and provincial governments and B.C.’s
First Nations Summit. Its job is to facilitate talks and dole out funds to aboriginal groups researching and negotiating treaties. As of this year, they Tom have disbursed $500 Fletcher million, $400 million of it loans that must be repaid out of treaty settlements. “We are 19 years into the process, and we have, just on the First Nations side, a half a billion dollar investment, and when are we going to start seeing a return on that investment?” Pierre asked. It’s safe to assume that there has been at least that much spent by the federal and provincial governments as well. And after a burst of progress
VICTORIA VIEWS
with the Tsawwassen and Maa-Nulth treaties, and a controversial deal with the Yale First Nation in the Fraser Canyon, costly inaction resumed. Sliammon First Nation negotiators finalized a treaty in 2009. Off it went to Ottawa, where it has languished ever since, waiting for a set of initials that would allow a ratification vote by about 1,000 Sliammon people near Powell River. At stake is a settlement in which B.C. contributes 8,300 hectares of Crown land and Ottawa provides $37 million to compensate for a century of trespass and resource extraction from Sliammon territory. (You can object to all this and try to live in the past, as B.C. Conservative leader John Cummins does, but we now have stacks of high court de-
cisions that make aboriginal title real and inescapable, if not well defined.) Other commissioners agreed with Pierre about Ottawa’s role, including the federal appointee, Jerry Lampert. “The Canadian system is such that they are constantly going back to Ottawa for mandates for their individual negotiators,” Lampert said. “This is bureaucratic, and it plays against the idea that we’re in a real negotiation.” With a majority government in Ottawa, and B.C. MP John Duncan as federal aboriginal affairs minister, there is hope of movement. And there is action on another front. Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq was in B.C. last week to sign an agreement to hand over authority and funding for on-reserve health programs to a new aboriginal
authority that will work with the provincial health system directly to administer reserve health programs. This will end a parallel health system run by Ottawa on reserves. A similar agreement was signed in 2006 for aboriginal schooling. Alas, five years later, there is still wrangling between the First Nations Education Steering Committee and Ottawa over funding. But I’m told there is progress there, with resolution possible by the end of this year. Sto:lo Tribal Chief Doug Kelly, chair of the First Nations Health Council, says its financing terms are clear, and dealing Ottawa out of health care delivery will improve outcomes. See FletcherA9