Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 27th, 2014

[The Chair (Mr. Gordon Brown (Leeds—Grenville, CPC)), Conservative, Gord Brown]

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to call this meeting number 30 of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to order.

The orders of the day are, pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday October 29, 2014, Bill S-211, an act to establish a national day to promote health and fitness for all Canadians. That is the business that we're going to deal with today.

This bill was in the Senate. It was carried by the Honourable Nancy Greene Raine, and she is going to be joining us shortly. There is a vote right now in the Senate.

As well, in the first hour we have from Sport Matters Group, Robert Elliott, and from Physical and Health Education Canada, Chris Jones.

We're going to start with Mr. Elliot for 10 minutes, then move to Mr. Jones, and then hopefully by that time Senator Raine will be joining us.

Mr. Elliott, you have the floor for 10 minutes.

[Robert Elliott, Senior Leader, Sport Matters Group]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good day, everyone. Bonjour, tout le monde.

First of all, thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee. It is truly appreciated and I hope that I'm able to add some value to your discussions about national health and fitness day in Canada.

I am pleased to be able to be here to support Bill S-211, which would recognize the first Saturday in June of each year as national health and fitness day across Canada. The Sport Matters Group, or SMG, is a group of individuals and organizations who believe that a values-based, ethical sport experience along with regular and accessible physical activity and facilities required to participate are integral to Canadian culture and the development of our people, communities, and nation.

We are keenly interested in sport physical activity and recreation at all levels and at all ages. SMG's collective voice promotes the value of sport and physical activity to Canadians and advocates policies, programs, and interventions that try to ensure every Canadian has access to the sport and physical activity opportunities to which they aspire.

Because sport and physical activity for all ages are important to the long-term mental and physical health of Canadians, Sport Matters pays attention to those factors that have a bearing on this health. My message to this committee is clear and simple: increased healthy, active living and sport participation is no longer a nice to have goal for governments in Canada; it is a must have. The facts that show the importance of an active, healthy lifestyle are well known, but allow me to share a sampling of those with you.

Only 15% of adults and fewer than 10% of teens meet the daily physical activity guidelines for health benefits. Canadian kids are spending seven hours and 48 minutes a day in front of a television, video game, or computer screen. Approximately one in four Canadian adults is obese. Similarly, 25% of Canadians aged two to seventeen are overweight or obese. Physically active youth have less anxiety, stronger social connections, and are less likely to abuse alcohol or drugs. They are less likely to develop chronic diseases and have stronger social cohesion, reducing risk-driven behaviour. Results from the Canadian health measures survey forecast accelerated disease development, increased health care costs, and loss of productivity due to declining fitness levels in Canada.

The Conference Board of Canada estimates that we could reduce hypertension cases by 220,000, diabetes cases by 120,000, and heart disease cases by 170,000 over the next 25 years through healthy, active lifestyles. These changes alone could add up to a saving of $2.6 billion over that 25-year period.

Last, nearly nine in ten Canadians believe that children do not get enough physical activity.

Physical activity is not just important to individuals, but it also has a massive impact on Canada's economy, as you're hearing. The Canadian Institute of Actuaries has determined that assuming current cost-of-living increases, health care budgets will consume 69% of total government budgets by the year 2037. We need to be greatly concerned about this as it leaves little for spending on other programs and activities. The actuaries also believe that all of this will reduce Canadian economic growth to a level of 1.5% to 2% per year over the next 25 years. This compares to the average 2.5% to 3% per year over the past 25 years.

Two separate documents released by the Conference Board of Canada this fall offer some very important facts about healthy, active living and the sedentary behaviour of Canadians. They provide insights into not only the benefits of leading an active, healthy lifestyle, but the drawbacks of being sedentary. Physical inactivity currently costs Canadian taxpayers approximately $6.8 billion per year, or 3.7% of health care costs. Getting moving and active is associated with as much as a 30% reduction in all causes of mortality rates. The Conference Board report also highlights the fact that an increase of only 10% of Canadian adults sitting less and moving more would reduce Canada's health care costs by $2.6 billion and inject $7.5 billion into the economy by 2040. This study goes on to say that the benefits of such an increase would start showing by as early as 2020 if we could get that 10% of adults more active next year, in 2015. All of this reinforces the need for physical activity as one solution to the problem of inactivity and its detrimental effect on health care costs.

Bill S-211, and national health and fitness day, if passed, will not be a panacea that will solve these issues. Nothing is. However, it will provide important additional awareness to the physical activity issue. Passing this bill will see the federal government set a precedent for provincial and municipal governments to emulate. There is a critical need for governments to take on this leadership role in support of preventative health care.

If municipal governments take the initiative seriously, national health and fitness day will grow from its current 155 communities that have taken it on to likely over 300 or more communities.

I envisage many more programs like the 10,000 step challenge undertaken by the Plant Pool Recreation Association in Ottawa this past June. This type of program encourages Canadian families to get active in a fun and interactive way. The creativity of local groups is limitless, and with that creativity will come the excitement of programs that serve their communities best, which will lead to increased participation.

If communities want to use national health and fitness day as an engagement tool, they could open their facilities on a complimentary basis to citizens wishing to use them. This loss leader would not only get more people active that day, but it might just bring in more users for the facilities being operated by these communities. If municipal facilities offer this type of activity, perhaps the for-profit fitness club sector might also start doing the same, much like GoodLife Fitness clubs did this past year.

Studies like the Institute for Canadian Citizenship's “Playing together” report show that new Canadians as well as other sectors of the population would welcome a chance to try facilities and programs on a complimentary basis in order to learn more. Support from a Sport Matters Group perspective will continue. We believe in it and we will support national health and fitness day and ensure that our over 1,000 constituents are aware of how they too can support the initiative by working with the various levels of government as well as with national and provincial sport organizations.

The federal government should see this initiative as the start of a movement to get Canadians moving, one that allows tremendous engagement for government and unifies us all.

I urge the government to pass Bill S-211.

I'm happy to answer any questions committee members might have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much.

We welcome Senator Greene Raine to the committee.

We'll give Mr. Jones 10 minutes and then, Senator, you can wrap up the panel.

Thank you.

[Chris Jones, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Physical and Health Education Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members, for the opportunity to speak with you today in support of Bill S-211, an act to establish a national day to promote health and fitness for all Canadians.

What makes me excited about national health and fitness day is that it is focused on solutions, not problems. Also, the agreement across the political spectrum in support of this proposal leads me to think that action in this vein is timely and would be well received. The headlines are clear about the downward trend in physical activity and sport participation, and the upward trend in overweight, obesity, and non-communicable chronic diseases.

To be sure, while dedicating one day a year to active living will not suddenly change this tide, it is an important symbolic step by Parliament. Such a declaration of all-party support can potentially motivate Canadians to take greater responsibility for their health and fitness in all aspects of their daily lives.

As executive director and CEO of Physical and Health Education Canada, I hear the reports from our members and supporters who are on the ground in classrooms, gymnasia, and after-school centres across this country. There is a multitude of pressures bearing down on children, youth, and their parents that make it difficult to achieve targets for physical activity. The reasons run the gamut from child overscheduling, to the built environment, to video and computer screen addiction, to parental anxiety.

At the same, when physical education and physical activity programs are working well, children and youth respond. They express interest in the activities they are doing, and they seek out new ways to have fun.

Physical and Health Education Canada is this country's national voice for physical and health educators. We speak to school administrators, teachers, government officials, parents, and other stakeholders, and they all recognize that there's a problem. Rates of physical activity are at the lowest in history and trending in the wrong direction. Rates of obesity and overweight children and youth today are on the rise. Moreover, with a huge emphasis on math, science, and computing, only a third of Canada's school kids are receiving regular physical education four to five times a week from a P.E. specialist.

We need to put in place the conditions that foster physical activity. This means fostering a culture of movement in our workplaces, schools, community settings, and homes. So much of the conversation around physical activity is focused on rising rates of obesity. While weight can have a serious and harmful effect on the body, this narrowing of the conversation loses sight of the myriad other benefits of physical activity. Bob has alluded to a few of them. Children and youth who are active have reduced social anxiety and improved self-confidence. They're less likely to smoke or abuse drugs and alcohol, and they are less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour. They are more focused and better prepared to learn, and have an improved self-image, especially among young women. Physical activity is an avenue to teach social responsibility and leadership.

In recognizing the interconnectedness between physical health and social, emotional, and intellectual well-being, a new term has emerged, “physical literacy”. A person who is physically literate possesses the basic movement skills that are the foundation of more complex activities. For example, someone who can kick or dribble can participate in activities like soccer or skating. Hopping or dodging might lead to track and field or dance. But it also applies more broadly. Physically literate people will be able to balance properly on a ladder, a skill that is essential for a roofer or a firefighter.

Physical literacy interventions are successful with children and youth because they foster intrinsic motivation, confidence, and competence along with fun. Once mastered, they hold huge potential to promote the adoption of lifelong healthy and virtuous behaviours. Because of this capacity to unlock motivation, physical literacy has increasingly featured as the DNA underlying new physical education curricula across Canada, and incidentally is the foundation block of the new Canadian sport policy. Physical literacy is the gateway to active participation, and more active children are healthier.

In 1970 federal leadership in the Canada fitness award program sought to create better attitudes towards personal fitness and to build skills and aptitudes useful beyond the formative years. While eventually discontinued, a renewed national effort based on current research and pedagogy is urgently required. We believe the federal government has the mandate and legitimacy to act once again in the interests of all young people throughout Canada.

MPs John Weston, Peter Stoffer, and Kirsty Duncan, and the sponsor of this bill in the Senate, Senator Nancy Greene Raine, have together recognized the inherent potential of national health and fitness day to act as a seed that may germinate into a broader movement, engaging and mobilizing Canadians to take responsibility for their health.

While culminating on the first Saturday of June, the entire week before could be positioned as a lead-up. This enables us to engage with schools and the education system to celebrate national health and fitness day.

In addition, as the 150th anniversary of Confederation approaches in 2017, Canada could make strategic investments in improving the physical activity of Canadians. A potential legacy of this celebration could be to position this country as making a concerted, proactive effort to address key determinants of health. For example, currently all of Canada's governments combined spend roughly $200 billion annually on health care, with only 2% of that sum devoted to health promotion, prevention, and physical activity initiatives.

Prevention is the single best medicine when it comes to improving the health of Canadians and cutting health care costs. As we know, the costs of physical inactivity, sedentary behaviour, and obesity are staggering. In 2001 the economic cost associated with physical inactivity was estimated at $5.3 billion, which included $1.6 billion in indirect health care expenditures and $3.7 billion in indirect costs. A new report by the McKinsey Global Institute, released just last week, estimated that the global cost of obesity has risen to $2 trillion annually, nearly as much as smoking or the combined impact of armed violence, war, and terrorism. We can begin to alleviate these costs by increasing investments in prevention from 2% to 3% of the national expenditure on health care.

The physical and health education sector applauds the efforts you are making to raise the profile of these issues. PHE Canada believes that every child deserves his or her own podium. Children who are physically active are better learners, lead more productive lives, and develop to be contributing members of society. The public, as our own opinion research confirms, overwhelmingly supports proactive initiatives in this area.

In closing, I would like to thank John Weston and Nancy Greene Raine for their efforts, reaffirm the value and importance of passing the national health and fitness day act, and urge the government to use it as a catalyst to enact other measures to get Canadians moving once again.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you, Mr. Jones.

Senator, you have the floor for 10 minutes.

[Nancy Greene Raine, Senator, CPC, Senate]

Thank you very much. I might not take 10 minutes. I'm not going to read a script. I'm going to think about why this bill came forward—and I'd like to thank John Weston, in particular, and all the other people who have supported it—but more importantly, about why it's so necessary right now.

We really are facing a crisis in the inactivity levels with our young people and people of all ages. We've seen some very inspirational things. Even just yesterday, I watched as Hazel McCallion retired at age 93 and went out skating. Those kinds of Canadians are my heroes and I look up to the 80-year-olds and 90-year-olds who are still full of life and vitality. I look at kids playing in the playgrounds and I see the same potential. Then I see kids sitting on the steps, on the sidelines, on their BlackBerry or their iPhone—I guess they're all on an iPhone. But I really am worried about where we're going.

When John and I and a few others talked about how we would judge the 2010 Olympics, the big effort that was being put in, the huge cost.... How would we measure it? Would it be successful? What were the measures we would apply? We all agreed it wasn't going to be the number of medals that Canada won. It wasn't going to be that we put on a great games and we were on budget. It was going to be, did we change Canadians' attitudes towards their own personal fitness through this big effort? That was five years ago. Nobody then would have dreamed that five years later 50% of Canadian students would have their own smartphones and be so engaged in them. We really are at a crisis level. We cannot continue. The numbers are there. We know there's a tsunami and that it's not going to be pretty if it keeps on going.

I believe that kids instinctively want to run about and play and have fun. I sense that parents are a little confused. Somehow we've gotten parents to a situation where they are insecure in sending their child to the neighbourhood park. They might be considered a parent who's negligent if they don't hover over them all the time. Yet they don't understand that putting their child in front of a device or a screen for hours and hours on end is not considered child abuse. But, really, we have to change things. I grew up in an era when we were sent out to play. We played actively. We created our own play. I was never involved in organized sport. We just had pick-up games on the street and in the backyards. Now everything has to be so organized that the kids don't have time to play. I'm not against organized sport. We have fantastic sport, and we have some great people involved in sport, and in coaching and helping the kids out. But there needs to be unstructured play too.

I'm very encouraged by what is happening. First of all, I like what I am hearing from the physical educators of this country who are recognizing that physical literacy is a basic literacy thing, and it has to be treated as a subject. It has to be marked. It has to be measured. It has to be taken seriously. I challenge them to do what other sports have done, which is to have level one, two, three, and four in their program for coaching and training of the athletes, because we are not going to get university-educated physical educators in every classroom in this country. It's not going to happen. We know that. Ideally it would happen. We need the physical educators having people who can help them, so that the classroom teacher, who is now faced with 20 or 30 kids ranging from little round people who don't know how to move very well to little buzz-bombs who are full of sugar and ready to run, has help so that the kids can be active and they can be out there.

I'm very encouraged when I see programs like HIGH FIVE, which started in Ontario and is now spreading across the country. It's a program to train what I would call play animators, people who can be responsible for children in the public parks and help get them moving. It's like level one of physical education.

There are a lot of good things happening there. I'm really encouraged, and working with John and this great group of advisers we have had in this national health and fitness day initiative, we've seen public-private partnerships and collaborations in the business world to help get involved in programs that help fill some of the gaps out there.

A lot of good things are happening, but I would say that national health and fitness day is only the beginning. Just the other day I was reading the speeches that took place in the House of Commons at second reading. It was very interesting to see how many parliamentarians were recognizing the importance of the issue and speaking of their own personal situations on how they have come to realize themselves, usually through a little health crisis, how necessary it is. I was also very impressed that the support for what we're doing has come from all parties. This is truly a non-partisan effort.

The challenge that I think we all have here is to make it happen. We don't need more studies. We don't need more research, although research and study should be ongoing so we can measure when we start to make progress. But we do need a commitment from everybody to work at this. There is no simple answer. It's a combination of what we call health and fitness. It's physical activity and nutritious, healthy eating as well. So there are some challenges.

I'm going to close with that. I welcome your questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much, Senator.

We will now go to a seven-minute round of questions.

We are going to start with Mr. Weston.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Chair, it's a great honour to be here today. It's wonderful to welcome three people who have several things in common. You are all passionate about health and fitness. You are all very hard working in pursuing those interests. You have had great influence in the country in what you do.

Let's start with Canada's female athlete of the 20th century. Nancy, you said a few things that I thought were interesting. You said it's only the beginning. This bill would appoint the first Saturday in June as national health and fitness day. Is this only a token, or how will it really influence Canada against some of the trends that have been identified in what you've said and what we heard in the speeches in the House and the Senate?

[Nancy Greene Raine]

Leadership at all levels, provincial, federal, and municipal, has a role to play in motivating Canadians to do things. It's a very broad field. It has to do with the built environment. It has to do with encouraging your municipality to open up its facilities as much as possible, to remove barriers, to reach out so that even people who may not be able to afford certain programs are somehow included. There is a lot to do.

I also think that we really have to look at the problem of obesity and overweight, which is really what we're trying to tackle, as two-phased. It's exercise and nutrition. If we look back to what we did about smoking, which we recognized was very bad for our health, there was a very broad effort to curb people's smoking in our country, and it has worked. But I would say it's relatively easy to say, “Don't smoke; it will kill you”. It's hard to say, “Don't eat; it will kill you”, because we need to eat. But we need to eat good food. We need to have a proper diet and not be eating empty calories, so there is a big job to be done.

I would suggest that we are in a situation where, when it comes to nutrition, there is a big advertising budget for food and beverages. I like to think of it as being like a game, and the game in the food and beverage industry is all about market share, earning a profit for your shareholders. That's their scoring. But if we're going to have a game, we have to have rules. We have to have referees and we have to have penalties if you break those rules. I think it's up to government to set the rules. I'm not sure we've done a good enough job on that, so that's a little challenge that we face.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you. Let me make sure we get a chance for other witnesses as well.

Mr. Elliott, you mentioned that 155 cities have proclaimed, even before the bill has become law. British Columbia is the first province, and Yukon has also come on board. What do you think it would take to bring on other cities?

Also, is this the right way to get people involved, through local governments and through the ownership of facilities such as rec centres and swimming pools?

[Robert Elliott]

Definitely, to answer that question, if we can scale it out to a community level, a local grassroots level, that's the way to have an impact on the largest number of Canadians. In my view, one of the places to start is at the municipal government level. I know there are some discussions going on with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to try to get more of their members supporting it and convincing their municipal facilities to take this on as a key initiative.

It's at that level that more Canadians are going to become involved. The more they are involved.... Obviously that's what we're after here.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

We are delighted that the FCM proclaimed in May, inviting all of their 2,000 members to follow suit, as did the Quebec Union of Municipalities.

Chris Jones, you mentioned the non-partisan aspect. In fact, this very morning there were members of Parliament from the Liberal, Conservative, and Green parties in the swimming pool at the Chateau Laurier, and we commonly....

Gosh, nobody from here was actually at the pool this morning.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

The parliamentary fitness initiative invites us all to work together. Can you explain the significance of it? You've been at several activities at which you have seen MPs from all parties: Bike Day in Canada, National Life Jacket & Swim Day. What do you think is the consequence of the cross-party support?

[Chris Jones]

I think there is a shared recognition that this is a non-partisan issue and that it goes to matters affecting the dollars that are going to be left for discretionary expenditure if we don't get a grip on this issue. All parties of all political persuasions recognize that at the provincial level, health care is now between 40% and 45% of the expenditure of most provincial governments. Some recent data I've seen have predicted that on current trends it could go as high as the mid-60s in percentage in some provinces. That will effectively leave no money for any other activities.

I think it's that mutual recognition of the problem and the need to deal with it at a systemic level that is driving this all-party support. I don't see this as a partisan issue at all.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

One of the most powerful things you ever said, Senator Greene Raine, was that athletes are not just athletes, but they're leaders. You live that in your role as a senator. You live it in your role encouraging health and fitness.

Can you expand a little on that? How do high-performance athletes like you relate to the rest of us Canadians?

[Nancy Greene Raine]

I know, just from the number of kids who've come up to me over the years.... It's rather embarrassing when they come up now and they have grey hair and they say, “You came to my school when I was a kid”—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Nancy Greene Raine]

—but you have a tremendous opportunity as an athlete at the national level to reach out and have an impact on kids. I don't know any athlete, any Olympic athlete or even high-performance athlete, who won't go and talk to kids at schools, at the playgrounds, if they're asked. My message to all of you would be to just ask and athletes will certainly be happy to become involved. I know there are many people in the sports world who have done just that.

But you know, we're all athletes. I'm always impressed when I see leaders in business, in politics, in the arts, who take a personal commitment to their own health. In reality, we could have the best health system in the world, but if you don't look after your own health, you're not going to be healthy. Everybody can be a leader in that.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Do I have time for one more?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

No, you're out of time, Mr. Weston.

Mr. Nantel, you have the floor for seven minutes.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I hear both arguments, from Senator Greene Raine and from Mr. Jones and Mr. Elliott.

Ms. Greene, I was with Mr. Weston and Mrs. Harper in May for the Trans Canada Trail. Clearly, from the angle you are taking, you seem to be talking about the way families behave with their kids. As a parent—now they're grown-ups—I remember saying, “That's a good movie, so it's going to be easy for 90 minutes; I'll have some time to breathe.”

The reality is that what you are actually saying is that it would be great that we make some quality sports time, quality time being moments to enjoy biking and doing these easy-access sports.

On the other hand, Mr. Jones, as a sports teacher...that's why I was asking Ms. Greene Raine. I don't know how to say that, professeur d'éducation physique.

The day that is being selected for that specific day is a Saturday. I understand it goes towards the families, and this is great. I think this has to be done day to day.

But in the schools there remains an issue of having fewer and fewer sports in the class curricula. Clearly, as you said many times, obesity is getting worrying and things have been changing. This committee has been facing these technological changes in the cultural world, and it affects, actually, the health situation of Canadians because there's so much in these little screens and people get stuck to them.

That day is to be aimed specifically at families, but how can teachers of sports jump in?

[Chris Jones]

In the promotion of the event the last few years, we at PHE Canada have promoted to teachers and the school system that they get active with their classes, and a number of them have done that. Informally speaking, I think it's going to be seen over time as health and fitness day week in practice, although it will culminate in and be celebrated formally on that Saturday. I think over time that's a direction we'd probably head in.

Teachers themselves are often parents. They have kids too. They're mindful of the lack of activity. The latest indications are that kids are spending about 8.6 hours of their day, or 60% of their waking hours, sedentary now, so clearly we need to find a way to engage them a little bit more. Physical education is part of it, but we know it's that period after school, from 3:00 to 6:00, which is also critical. In the after-school time slot, kids should be active then, and the reality is many of them are heading home to do homework or to game, or they have sibling child care duties. We need to find ways to get them active in that 3:00 to 6:00 slot. It's typically often at the school.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you.

As I was telling you the last time we were with Mrs. Harper, we may not agree when it comes to climate change, but I agree with you completely when it comes to physical activity.

I think you are indeed a hero with the ability to infect others with your enthusiasm to participate in sports and push yourself physically. I ate many a Mars bar while thinking of you. If we can sell chocolate, then we can certainly sell sports and physical activity.

What can we do to make an initiative like the Trans Canada Trail more accessible?

Something I have learned in my three years in Parliament is that, when you're trying to solve a problem, it's always a good idea to look at what other countries have done. Where does Canada rank in terms of sport participation? Are we at the head of the class or the bottom? Where do we stand? What would you recommend?

[Nancy Greene Raine]

I don't think I'm the best person to answer that, since I don't have all those numbers. But I do think physical inactivity is a worldwide problem. The top countries are those with good physical education systems in their schools.

Unfortunately, most Canadian provinces have dropped physical education in favour of computers. They have also done away with home economics classes, and that may have been a mistake.

I have often heard provinces say that there isn't enough time in the day for physical education. In Manitoba, however, all students take physical education every day. So it is possible.

In my view, that is what we should once again be aiming for.