In B.C.
Evidence of meeting #27 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infrastructure.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #27 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was infrastructure.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Childhood Obesity Foundation of British Columbia
In B.C.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
So there are a number of practices throughout the country that you are aware of?
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Childhood Obesity Foundation of British Columbia
Similar programs being either run or started. I'm not quite sure. One is in Alberta that I know of.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
Do you know if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have done any evaluations of programs in the U.S.?
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Childhood Obesity Foundation of British Columbia
I'm sorry, I do not know that, but I can find that information for you.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
If we could get some information on that particular program, it would be really interesting.
5:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Childhood Obesity Foundation of British Columbia
Yes, of course.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
Thank you.
I also have a question for Ms. Mongeau. I think you had said that the report in your hand was the result of a private and public partnership. Is that right, and could you just tell us a bit more about it?
5:05 p.m.
Professional Coordinator, Institut national de santé publique du Québec
The funding has both a private and public component. The private funding is from the Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon. The funding is private but charitable. The foundation doubles the amount allocated by Quebec. It is a ten-year funding commitment. This allows for long-term action, which is absolutely critical where prevention of childhood obesity is concerned.
Could I complete my answer to the previous question? There are a couple of points I would like to add.
5:10 p.m.
Professional Coordinator, Institut national de santé publique du Québec
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and, in this case, the Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes Institute, have made a considerable effort. In terms of funding, they have made obesity a priority. Furthermore, they have made significant changes to the way they determine what is a research priority. That includes placing a greater focus in research on all the information needed to develop public policy. Research generally focusses mostly on basic science and genetics, but that is not enough to meet the challenge of obesity. So, they have worked very hard to change the program's direction, even though I believe current funding is woefully inadequate. In my opinion, that concerns the federal government.
In terms of programs to treat obesity, there are very few that are considered to be effective. I don't believe the CDCs have done any kind of evaluation. There are some programs being delivered in the United States. However, to my knowledge, the most promising ones have been developed by a researcher in Israel. She has demonstrated that programs were more effective when parents participated on their own, as opposed to when children were involved on their own, or when parents and children were involved. These are very useful indications in terms of the kinds of best practices we should be looking at for treating child obesity.
November 9th, 2006 / 5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to everyone for their presentations. And although he is not here, I would also like to thank Minister Watson for coming this afternoon.
Ms. Bays, I appreciated the rhythm of your presentation. I thought it was almost poetic in parts.
My question goes to Infrastructure Canada. I'm from Manitoba, and we have a strong bond with our friends in northwestern Ontario. In fact I understand some of them would rather that northwestern Ontario become part of Manitoba. However, I have a question dealing with your comment about geography and how it plays a role in obesity.
You compared Victoria to Thunder Bay. Thunder Bay has a lot of the qualities that Victoria has: a large water body, lots of fresh-water lakes around it, and a lot of outdoor recreational opportunities. The climate is different. However, there are things that are fun and active and which can be done in the winter.
So there must be something more than just geography as a role here. Could you please clarify your assertion that it was the geography that was playing a role, and not obesity?
5:10 p.m.
Director General, Policy Directorate, Cities and Communities Branch, Infrastructure Canada
Thank you very much for the question.
It is not my assertion. It is the Statistics Canada study's assertion.
I would refer you to the study, which we sent to the clerk and it is available. The only thing I can surmise is by taking cues from the other intervenors. There must be specific sociological phenomena at play that determine obesity outcomes in Thunder Bay that are different from those in Victoria. Your capacity to read a crystal ball is probably much better than mine, but presumably those factors would have been identified in the study.
I would suspect that there are climatic differences as well. Thunder Bay and Victoria certainly don't have the same climate.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
I think it would be helpful for the committee if we do take a close look at that report, because there are certainly many recreational opportunities in Thunder Bay. If I had to choose somewhere to live and it wasn't Winnipeg, Thunder Bay might be one of those places. There's a lot of opportunity for activity there.
Ms. Bays, when you made your presentation you talked about healthy food versus fast food, or something to that effect. Can you comment on how we can make fast food healthy, to deal with the market demands? Have you given any consideration or can you direct us to any resources that could help us with that?
Also, for all the panellists, are you aware of any jurisdictions that share Canada's diversity, both in geography and population, from which we can learn lessons?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB
I'm just wondering if there are other countries or jurisdictions that would help us in coming up with some recommendations in our report and that you have been impressed with.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
I think he's asking if there are any other countries that have McDonald's healthy.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
5:15 p.m.
Regional Manager, Northern Health
There are very few of those.
There are groups that work with the fast food industry to identify. Dietitians of Canada is one group that would look at the restaurant offerings and try to develop tools for the general public so that they can make healthier choices in fast food restaurants.
But rather than looking at other countries, other places, or other jurisdictions, we're looking at the system and seeing how we can adapt to it better. I think we need to look at countries that have actually said seriously that they need to redesign things and have actually had some success. Scandinavian countries are good ones to look at. Norway created a food policy. It took them fifty years, but they were able to demonstrate a 15% reduction in cardiovascular disease. It's a comprehensive food policy that really looks like our tobacco policy, if you look at it. We should be looking at those kinds of substantial changes.
As well, how do we cope? What can we do with what we have? How can we move toward something a little bit different? It's going to be complex. What is the thing that's going to move? As you're saying, it's about social change and environmental change. What's going to change that? If I look at the tobacco again, I don't think I could pull out the one thing that made us aware that when you're smoking in one part of the room, I'm inhaling it, so therefore it's against my rights. In a sense, I think food is the same way, and active living.
What is the one thing? There isn't one thing. It's a multiplicity of multiple things, and sooner or later you just push that next step. People accepted a ban on smoking. In northern B.C., we are accepting bans on smoking now. Ten years ago? Twenty years ago? Forget that.
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
I want to thank all of you for your input on this very important subject.
Ms. Mongeau, I do intend to take the time to read your paper. For now, I prefer to ask questions of the people we have less of an opportunity to talk to, given that they are not from Quebec.
Ms. Panagiotopoulos, you talked about a ban on advertising aimed at children. You are right that some kinds of advertising aimed at children are prohibited in Quebec, but in peak viewing hours, when there are ads for Kentucky Fried Chicken, chocolate, pizza and cholesterol-free French fries, children also watch those ads and fall prey to them. We may have to conduct an in-depth review of how advertising is developed and the type of advertising that we consider acceptable.
Ms. Bays, I noted your concerns with respect to Canada's Food Guide and I have to say that I think they are warranted. However, we have been told that Canada's Food Guide will not mention the 25% of other foods that we eat in the course of a day. Also, Health Canada has recommended that people employed or closely associated with some of the large corporations you named not play a role in developing Canada's Food Guide.
Are you concerned about the fact that this tool will be used to promote healthy and balanced eating all across Canada? Also, do you believe that children using food banks will really benefit from the 500 $ tax credit allocated to families for sports? If not, do you think that money would be put to better use if it were available to people like you to develop programs and bring in healthy foods to areas where people need them?
5:20 p.m.
Regional Manager, Northern Health
I'm going to answer the last piece, which was about the transport of food and the foods in food banks. I'm absolutely agreeing with that. We need to look more upstream. The answer isn't to see how we can distribute food in food banks. The answer to the question is social policy change, which is much bigger than that, right?
You talk about transportation issues, but really the question about whether or not a poor child can get enough to eat has a whole lot to do with the fact that we no longer have the Canada assistance plan. We changed that. We threw that out and asked each province to come up with their own standard for how much is enough in order to purchase nutritious food.
Those families cannot purchase food. Maybe they can learn to grow food or maybe they can help with this alternative system that I'm talking about, but a lot of them are running all over the place for their everyday day-to-day needs, like child care and what not. They don't have time to be growing carrots.
So in answer to that question, yes, we need substantial policy change. Kids shouldn't be going to food banks. We should have social policy that actually gives them enough money to buy food and housing and clothing and health care and those things.
What was the first part? I missed another part.