Health committee  I regret, Mr. Chair, I forgot to introduce my colleagues, Colleen Kiel and Jeffery Pearce, from the Ministry of Health Promotion. I apologize to them. I thank you very much, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to talk about some of the exciting things we

Health committee  It is, in fact. Mine was one of the few ministries that got an increase in our base funding, particularly with our smoke-free Ontario campaign. We brought in a very comprehensive anti-smoking package. It's not just legislation that bans smoking in public work places, but it also

Health committee  Just to give you some perspective, after what was supposed to have been a federal-provincial-territorial ministers meeting a couple of months ago in Toronto, which ended up being a provincial-territorial meeting instead, FCM put out a communiqué in support of what we were doing i

Health committee  No, we had no such intention, Mr. Dykstra, to do that. Although I was teased because when I gave out my Hallowe'en bags, I included toothbrushes and pedometers. My house was egged afterwards.

Health committee  Speaking of credit, I'd like to take credit for inspiring your Prime Minister to bring forward that idea, because a couple of months before he announced it, I floated the idea and the Toronto Star ran a story about it. I don't think our finance minister was as enthusiastic as I

Health committee  I do. Actually, I am a fan. Just to go back, there are two aspects to your question. At the elementary school level, we instituted 20 minutes of mandatory daily physical activity, in addition to physical education class, which on average is three times a week in Ontario. We h

Health committee  Thank you, Dr. Fry, for the question. This is an issue that's near and dear to my heart, because, as a former mayor of Ottawa, I understand one of the challenges that face municipal governments, particularly when it comes to the upkeep of recreation facilities and arenas and poo

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am very pleased to be here today. I'm certain that at this stage in your committee hearings, you don't need to be convinced of the major challenge that childhood obesity has become for health policy-makers