Health committee  Yes, absolutely. We collaborate. We share data. We share best practices.

Health committee  Many provinces are doing that. Some of them have their own Alzheimer's strategy. Some of them are focused on Alzheimer's under a seniors strategy. There's actually a lot going on across the country in terms of serving people with Alzheimer's and doing things to keep seniors healthy and their minds working.

Health committee  Physical activity--keeping seniors active through engaging them in group walks so that they've got social interaction while they're being physically active at the same time. That's a major part of a number of programs. The work we do through ParticipAction is also helping to advance that.

Health committee  The mechanism that we use to share best practices is the Canadian best practices portal, which is a web-based portal that is on the Public Health Agency of Canada website. It gathers the best practices that have been evaluated and identified in various topic areas such as injury prevention or diabetes prevention or whatever.

Health committee  Sure. Our surveillance system on chronic disease does track chronic disease rates and risk factors across the country. So we're able to identify areas where there seem to be higher rates of certain diseases or risk factors, and therefore help our provincial and territorial colleagues by providing that data so they can target their efforts and so we can also target our efforts collectively toward improving prevention in those locations.

Health committee  I have to thank you, because you've just made my point about the whole-of-society approach. Within the federal jurisdiction, there are things we can do, but there's a lot more that needs to be done under other jurisdictions as well. The access of seniors to affordable nutritious food is one of the elements we're undertaking with our provincial or territorial colleagues.

Health committee  That's a good question. It's a tough question. We are still learning a lot about delaying onset of neurological conditions. Even beyond that, keeping seniors active and providing them with opportunities in their communities and in long-term care facilities, keeping their brains functioning and keeping them engaged are important parts of the work that we care about and that we try to facilitate through our funding programs working in partnership with others.

Health committee  You're absolutely right. We have a major public health challenge with our aboriginal population and we come at that challenge through a number of mechanisms. Let me give you some examples. Through Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch there is an aboriginal diabetes initiative.

Health committee  And on the research on Alzheimer's disease, if I can say quickly, to Ms. Duncan's point, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research is providing exceptional leadership in an international partnership around Alzheimer's disease to bring the world's best researchers together to accelerate discovery on diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Health committee  I'd be glad to. Let me start by talking about the partnerships we have within the Americas region, with our colleagues in Caribbean countries and Latin American countries. There's a network of countries that we work with called the CARMEN network. These countries work together to determine how best to make policy change in their own context to support prevention.

Health committee  The conversations with the business community have largely focused on food and beverage as a first step because we're concerned, obviously, around the healthy eating dimensions of healthy seniors and healthy Canadians overall. The conversations are around how the food and beverage industry can be part of the solution to encourage healthy eating and to reformulate products so they are healthier.

Health committee  I haven't found a strategy that I would tout as the best strategy for long-term care. What I will tell you, though, is that a chronic care model was developed by a researcher named Wagner, in the United States, and it's called the Wagner model. It has been expanded and extended, but it's a model that takes chronic disease management out of acute care, out of the health care system, and joins it up with the community.

Health committee  Yes, actually, we do. Many Canadians have pre-diabetes. They have not been diagnosed with diabetes, but they are on that cliff and are about to move over. We've developed a risk assessment tool called CanRisk, which has been adapted from a Finnish tool, actually, and which helps individuals assess their risk of diabetes.

Health committee  Of community action to promote health of seniors beyond the age-friendly communities....

Health committee  Okay. Particular cities that are going a good job...? I'm not aware of them, but Cathy...?