Evidence of meeting #30 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was activity.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC
Very good.
I'm going to give the rest of my time to Ms. Mathyssen, who has a question for you about diet.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you very much for being here.
It's good to hear from you and always delightful to see you, Senator Greene Raine.
You all touched on the whole issue of sedentary behaviour.
Senator Raine, you mentioned the issue of good food, kids not getting good food, eating sometimes some pretty terrible stuff.
We heard just in the last few days from one of our Quebec members that 30 years ago, Quebec banned ads for junk food directed at children under 13 and that the childhood obesity rate has been reduced by 17%. That seems to me to be a very good step. When I was teaching I fought against this tooth and nail, the ads for soft drinks and chips and things in the schools. Because schools were lacking in money, they had been cut back in terms of their budgets, and they were actually engaging in ads over the in-circuit systems in the schools with companies that were advertising these things. We pushed back against it and I think it was a good thing to push back—
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
Ms. Mathyssen, you're going to have to wrap it up. We'll give the senator just a few seconds for a quick answer. Thank you.
4:05 p.m.
Senator, CPC, Senate
I know there are a lot of Canadians and a coalition forming to come up with some solutions. Again, I think we have to look at the big picture. Basically, if we have to spend taxpayers' money to promote healthy eating and we're up against millions of dollars in budgets for products that aren't particularly healthy, then we're never going to win. We need to write some rules. I don't know what they are, but I think we have to work on that.
It's a combination. It's not just sport and activity and being physically active, it's the other side of the equation as well.
4:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
Okay. Thank you very much.
We're going to move to Mr. Hsu for seven minutes.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Thanks for coming here today.
My first question is for Senator Greene Raine. We've heard a lot about the importance of engaging municipalities on national health and fitness day. I'm just wondering if the provincial governments and municipalities were consulted regarding the establishment of this day. If they were, did they have any reaction or advice?
4:05 p.m.
Senator, CPC, Senate
We didn't formally consult the provinces. We decided to start here and then invite them to join. We've had a very good response, by and large.
The first bill that MP Weston introduced called on the municipalities to open their facilities free of charge on national health and fitness day. There was a little pushback; not all municipalities saw the value in that. Some municipalities have a lack of facilities and they're stretched to the limit to use them or even have enough space. Other municipalities are finding that their facilities are being underused, and they are in a position to and would probably welcome the opportunity to open up their facilities.
There are a lot of different things out there. By identifying one day, it starts to coalesce the dialogue around what can be done, and we want to share what municipalities are doing and what's happening around the country. It's not just municipalities, of course. It's first nations as well, and hopefully things will move forward.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Mr. Elliott, I believe you spoke a lot about the economic benefits and, I guess, the unrealized value that could be unlocked by the right kinds of investment in getting people to be more physically active.
With that in mind, how do you envision the federal government contributing to a national health and fitness day? As a result of passing this bill, are there any specific initiatives or maybe investments or something that you'd like this committee to recommend to the government?
4:10 p.m.
Senior Leader, Sport Matters Group
I think Chris Jones made some reference to this as well. A greater investment in prevention from a health care perspective is needed, given some of the numbers we've both talked about, and Senator Greene Raine as well, where we're looking at serious economic challenges down the road if something is not done about it.
I think if the federal government can take that leadership position and spend a little bit more money on preventive type of initiatives for physical activity, health prevention, healthy active lifestyle promotion, and those kind of things.... We've specifically said to the Standing Committee on Finance that our numbers tell us that the federal government is spending now about $9 billion a year on health care, and about 2% of that goes toward healthy, active living, physical fitness type of initiatives. If that can be increased to 3%...I'll say a mere 1%. I realize the number is about $90 million, obviously. That's not peanuts; we understand that. But we just think that there needs to be a step made in that direction as quickly as possible to get us to a point where there's recognition. If it happens at the federal level, there are perhaps some provincial governments that are going to take heed of that and possibly start to put some more effort and investment into those types of initiatives at their level as well.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Correct me if I am wrong, but I think what you are saying is if it is a good investment, don't be afraid of investing more.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Don't be afraid of the number of dollars if it is a good investment.
4:10 p.m.
Senior Leader, Sport Matters Group
And don't be afraid to have the payback come further down the road than some other ROI might be.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Okay.
If I could, I will just drill down a little bit more. We can look at, from the national household survey, the participation levels of Canadians in physical activity, and we can see a general decline in the population from that data.
Are there specific groups or at-risk groups for whom you think the federal government could do something in particular to reverse this decline in physical activity?
4:10 p.m.
Senior Leader, Sport Matters Group
There are probably a few of those. I think disadvantaged groups need extra attention. Those might be those at the lower income levels. Those might be first nations, as Senator Greene Raine just alluded to. I think there needs to be extra attention paid to those types of groups to be able to say let's get them more involved.
In my case I might have the wherewithal to put my kids in some of these activities and drive them there every Saturday morning—or all week; it's not just Saturday mornings any more. But to do that ferrying about all week, there are groups out there that just can't do that. I think those are the ones we need to place extra emphasis on.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Jones, from your point of view, how can the federal government collaborate with you or your organization to promote health and fitness?
4:15 p.m.
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Physical and Health Education Canada
I think it starts from a recognition that this is a problem that exists in every jurisdiction in the country from coast to coast. While education is formally a provincial area of jurisdiction, I think that when there's an instance where it's happening in every subregion of the country, then there's a case for the feds to be involved.
I think of back in the 1970s when the Canada fitness award program was created—and funnily enough my organization actually created the fitness test that went along with that program 40 years ago. There is a precedent for that, and I would argue that some kind of national intervention—and we made this in our pre-budget submission—around diagnosing and assessing physical literacy would be a good place to start.
We think that can be done for about $10 million a year, basically, for every school kid in the country. Remember that school is the one place you get every single Canadian kid for six and a half hours a day. In clubs and some of the other contexts, some children are unable to be in those places, whereas they are in the school system.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
So there's really a place for some national spending and investment.
4:15 p.m.
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Physical and Health Education Canada
I think over time. As Senator Raine has pointed out, we do need some kind of a symbolic day here first of all to engage and mobilize Canadians, but over time I think something like that could be beneficial.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Okay.
Perhaps I could ask the senator the same question. Are there specific investments or programs that you think this committee should be recommending to the federal government to back up passing this bill to establish a special day?
4:15 p.m.
Senator, CPC, Senate
Definitely there are things the federal government can do, and I agree with my colleague Chris Jones here, because the schools are very critical in this. You have all the children in the schools, and if we're going to take physical literacy seriously, we have to measure it.
I think back to the Canada fitness awards. I was involved in those when they were starting up back in the sixties. We were measuring who could reach certain targets. A lot of kids have great memories of that, of how hard they tried to get their gold badge. But for some children, and probably a significant proportion, those were a negative experience because they couldn't achieve it.
I think we have to bring the awards back again and set those bars so kids know that they can improve and that they should be trying to improve their own fitness levels. We also have to recognize the most improved, and we have to look at programs that are specifically designed for those kids who fall through the cracks, who are coming into the education system already unfit and overweight and who haven't toddled as toddlers. Those kids exist today.
We need to have a two-pronged approach. If we do that, I think there is a role for the federal government to play in terms of writing the tests and putting together the program that all the school districts across the country would be free to buy into if they want to. Certainly we've heard that people are looking for this.
You know that from your experience, Chris.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Hsu.
We'll move to Mr. Yurdiga, for seven minutes.