Health committee  I'm Kathy Langlois, with the first nations and Inuit health branch in Health Canada.

Health committee  What I could add, from a first nations and Inuit health point of view, is that the Canadian Pediatric Society has a first nations and Inuit health committee. They have issued a position statement in their journal on FASD, and we are currently working with them to update that stat

Health committee  I'd be happy to speak to the fact that the first nations and Inuit health branch is a little bit like a province, in that we're responsible for providing those public health promotion services on reserve that a province would provide elsewhere. And we do collaborate with the Publ

Health committee  In the early years of the program there was a poster that I think got significant attention, and we did use it. But to be the most effective, we've allowed communities to develop their own ways of messaging.

Health committee  I believe the program started in about 1999 with $5 million a year. In the 2002 budget it grew to $19 million to $20 million per year. It has been at that level since then, with $16.7 million with the first nations and Inuit health branch and $3.3 million with the Public Health A

Health committee  Actually, what I pointed out is that we collaborate on a grand level. For example, there are—

Health committee  I think our message is more holistic when we work with first nations and Inuit communities. We talk about having health and all the things it takes to be healthy, and—

Health committee  I'm not exactly sure of the specific message, but I can check and get back to you on that. I know we do talk about a healthy lifestyle—

Health committee  We're talking about a healthy lifestyle; we're talking about women at risk who are already drinking, and we talk to them about the harms it does to their baby. That is the key message in our program. I also explained that when we did our opinion survey, we asked them if they und

Health committee  Eighty-six percent of first nations said yes and 79% of Inuit said yes.

Health committee  In fact, during earlier proceedings, I made a note for myself to go back and ensure we had the accurate message.

Health committee  Yes, just quickly, with regard to engaging women who've engaged in the activity already, that is the basis of our mentoring program. We look for experienced mothers in the community who've walked that road and who have recovered and are prepared to take on the challenge of workin

Health committee  With the funding we have, we'll be offering the program in 30 places across the country. We drew on the model developed in Manitoba to set up the program, which serves 20 to 30 women.

Health committee  We have three or four mentors for 15 to 20 women.

Health committee  Mr. Chairman and honourable members, my name is Kathy Langlois. I am the Director General of Community Programs, in Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch. Thank you for inviting me today to highlight some of the issues related to overweight and obesity among Can