The Ontario Public Health Collaboration on Cannabis
Date of Teleconference: / April 21, 2017Time: / 1:30 – 3:00 pm
Location: / Teleconference
Chair: / Elena Hasheminejad (York Region) and Leah Simon (Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit)
Minute Taker: / Brant County Health Unit
Participants: / Algoma Public Health
Brant County Health Unit
Bureau de santé Porcupine
Chatham-Kent Public HealthDurham Region Health Department
Eastern Ontario Health Unit
Elgin St. Thomas Public Health
Grey Bruce Health Unit
Haldimond-Norfolk Health Unit
Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (HKPR) Health Unit
Halton Region Health Department
Hamilton Public Health Services
Huron County Health Unit
KFL&A Public Health
Middlesex-London Health Unit
Niagara Region Public Health
Northwestern Health Unit
Ottawa Public Health
Oxford County Public Health
Perth District Health Unit
Peterborough Public Health
Peel Public Health
Porcupine Health Unit
Region of Waterloo
Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
Timiskaming Health Unit
Toronto Public Health
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
York Region Public Health
Tobacco Control Area Network - Cindy Baker-Barill
Thunder Bay District Health Unit
Regrets: / Lambton Public Health
Region of Waterloo Public Health
Sudbury District Health Unit
Wellington- Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit
Guests: / Shawn O’Connor (Ontario Tobacco Research Unit)
1.0 Welcome & Introductions / Discussion Leader: Leah
Discussion:
· Welcome
· Call-out of members
· Minutes – Thank you to Brant County Health Unit
2.0 Review of Agenda and Previous Minutes / Discussion Leader: Leah
Discussion:
· Review of previous minutes—no changes. Approved by Elena
o Action items from previous minutes
§ Elena agreed to post new resources or evidence to the group microsite. (done)
§ Elena will resend the link to the microsite. (done)
§ CCSA Presentation - resource links mentioned during the presentation will be shared via email (done)
· Additions to agenda
o Updating the environmental scan
o Webinar: CPHA Cannabis Distribution & Public Health
3.0 Updates / Discussion Leader: Elena
Recent Requests:
· alPHa Presentation
o Elena reported the February 24th alPHa presentation was well attended and received positive feedback. She thanked Allison from Peel for her help and advised that she has uploaded the presentation to the microsite.
· The Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Attorney General Meeting
o Elena attended this meeting at end of March. Representatives from three Ministries were in attendance, as were Pegeen Walsh and Michelle from the Task Force. Elena reported that the ministry asked questions on topics such as what a safe supply chain would look like, commercial sales, co-locations, how to minimize harms to youth, and advertising and marketing. Elena clarified that stakeholders from different sectors (finance, public health etc.) have been identified and invited to meet with the ministry and she was not aware of any plans for a public consultation. This was the first time they heard about the Collaborative, and the meeting went well.
o Elena will upload their PowerPoint to the microsite.
· TOPHC
o At the cannabis breakout session, Elena was asked to introduce the collaborative and this was a great opportunity to let others know what the group is about.
· OPHA
o There has not been a formal meeting since the last task force meeting.
· Advocacy letter
o The steering committee has drafted a letter. It was recognized that there may be challenges to moving forward as a large group, as we all have different BOH approval processes and this is time-sensitive. OPHA also planned to submit something so we have collaborated with them. The letter will be sent by OPHA with input from this collaborative. Ideally, this letter will be shared on the microsite as a template for individual Health Units to use, if they wish.
o Elena invited feedback, which included the following suggestions from the group:
§ Include recommendations re: distribution systems, following yesterday’s webinar on the public health implications associated with this.
§ To make changes to the restrictions paragraph (pg. 2). Should we urge a complete ban on advertising and promotion rather than a comprehensive restriction?
§ To advocate for consistency across provinces re: minimum age. The group discussed minimum age recommendations at length and whether we should advocate for higher. It was acknowledged that there are many factors that go into setting the minimum age for purchase, but that we should recommend that “a minimum age of 19” be set, that is consistent across provinces and for all substances (alcohol, tobacco and cannabis).
§ To advocate for consistency with regard to plain packaging and promotion guidelines for both tobacco and cannabis
o Leah and Elena will make changes to the letter and asked for additional suggestions/concerns to be sent to them by Thursday April 27th.
· General updates/Inquiries
o Nancy shared a draft briefing note from Ottawa Public Health, which she has shared with the group.
o The group discussed the need for education and awareness around edibles. This topic was brought up at TOPHC and the group agreed that this is an area we need to keep an eye on, acknowledging that recommendations won’t be as straight forward as they may be with combustibles.
· Environmental Scan
o Julie suggested updating the environmental scan that was completed last summer. The group agreed that this would be a helpful resource for members that are new to the collaborative, and for everyone to be aware of what Health Units are doing.
o Leah and Elene will send this out to the group, in case anyone has anything to add.
· Webinar: CPHA Cannabis Distribution & Public Health
o The group was only able to discuss this a bit, before running out of time. Basically the webinar talked about cannabis distribution methods, and using a not for profit model rather than a more commercialized one. Jackie will follow up with Leah and Elena to share the details/slides from this webinar when she gets them.
4.0 Next Steps / Discussion Leader: Elena and Leah
· Federal Announcement
o Deferred to next meeting, as we ran out of time to discuss this.
o Elena asked if anyone is doing anything around proposed act and two Health Units (Toronto & KFL & A) reported preparing BOH reports. When these are complete, they agreed to share with the collaborative.
· Coordinated Key Messages
o Leah and Elena will begin reaching out to start working on coordinated key messages for the group to have as a resource.
· Collaborative Evaluation
o The 1 year anniversary of the collaborative is approaching. At the next meeting, we will follow up with a collaborative evaluation survey to look at how things are going and what we should do differently.
· Next meeting – June 2017 – Doodle poll to be sent
5.0 TIMS – Ontario Tobacco Research Unit Webinar (2:30 pm) / Presenter: Shawn O’Connor
· Shawn presented a webinar about the online data portal: tims.otru.org
· There was discussion about whether or not this type of resource could include other substances such as alcohol. The potential exists.
· Deanna Vanderbroes shared information on The Canadian Cannabis Survey. For more information, contact