Yes.
Evidence of meeting #10 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was activity.
Evidence of meeting #10 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was activity.
12:45 p.m.
Director, Health Policy, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
That's a good question; it's a very good question.
Sometimes the wheels of government turn slowly and sometimes they can turn very quickly. It really depends on the issue.
This should be given a high priority by the government. I know we've had a commitment to it for four years now. I think the government has had some difficulty trying to figure out how best to do it, partly because of the complexity of the issues. One of the things Diane mentioned about complexity is that it can create paralysis.
How do you tackle this thing? Our response would be that we have some ideas, work with us, and let's do it.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Okay. I have one other question.
You've all touched on the fact that if children are going to eat more healthily and eat healthier food, the potential of subsidizing that or finding a way to subsidize it makes the cost of junk food more expensive than the cost of good food.
From a government perspective, one of the issues we face within the ministry of agriculture is on the difficulties we have in terms of subsidization and what that means from an international perspective and maybe from a more global perspective. I'm not trying to make this into a bigger issue than it is, but it has a significant impact in terms of how we might address that.
One, what have you done in terms of working with the ministry of agriculture to understand that? Two, on the implementation of said strategy, how would it work from a more global perspective without putting us into conflict?
12:45 p.m.
Scientific Director, Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
I've been thinking about and working on this problem for four or five years. I'd say it's only been within the last six to eight months that agriculture has really got it on their radar. Over the last six months, I've been to quite a few meetings with people in industry, from farm gate to dinner plate, if you will, and in government, both nationally and locally, to discuss this. It's now on their radar.
We're doing whatever we can to help educate them on the issues that we talked to you about today and to work with in close connection with them to ensure that—again, from my point of view, it's the research issue—we bring evidence to the table and that, whatever they do, they do it in a way in which we understand the impact of it.
12:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
If I might just add to that, both Diane and I were recently involved in an initiative being led by the agri-food institute to bring the four departments--Public Health Agency, Health Canada, Agriculture Canada, and the CFIA--together to talk about how we can change food policy and at the same time benefit our agriculture policy. We need that sort of coming together of the various interests. There are going to be a lot of issues around that table, but if that discussion moves forward, it will have the potential to bring all the players to the table who need to be there.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much. We have one more questioner.
Ms. Keeper, do you have a short question?
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
Thank you.
I'd like to pick up on what Rick was asking about, regarding the impact on our children over this period of time. We look at the numbers from the 1970s until now and how drastic a change there has been in them. I'm just wondering, Diane or Peter, whether you have worked with sociologists to track trends of how our culture is changing, and the impacts of globalization and marketing, which you've talked about a lot.
On the other side of the equation are the anorexia and bulimia eating disorders, which have also drastically risen, I'm sure, since the 1970s. Are these trends, which have an impact on our health, marked by a shift in our culture over the last 25 years? I'm just wondering if you could comment on that a little bit.
12:45 p.m.
Scientific Director, Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
What I would say is that the creation of CIHR was a great vehicle to allow us to engage a much broader range of researchers. As a result of that, some of the funds that you see in that bar chart are going to people who come from sociology departments, who are interested in behavioural aspects. There are people who come from economic departments and business schools, and places like that. So by shifting the playing field to one in which we're engaging all people who are relevant to health research, we're going down the road, but I will say that it's going to take some time to engage more players, and also to build the capacity for that kind of work. That's a good first step, but it's really just a first step.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
I was thinking as Rick was talking--and I think Dave talked about the amount of television or screen time--that when I was a kid, we had one channel. Just the level of availability of everything requires sort of a push back. And you were talking in terms of policy development. I think the Quebec model is a really excellent example of that.
12:50 p.m.
Scientific Director, Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
Unfortunately, we don't actually know the impact of Quebec's decision to do that 15 or 20 years ago in any really serious way. There's no real causal linkage, because the research wasn't done when that policy change was implemented. So when we implement policy, we absolutely must have our systems in place so that researchers can come to the table and understand the impact of it.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much. Ms. Keeper certainly doesn't look to be of an age that would remember a time when there was only one television station.
Our questioning is over. I just have one short comment to make. I like the Quebec model. I see that, but I also notice that Alberta has the least amount of obesity of the provinces. That actually surprises me a little bit, but nonetheless, it's something to take note of.
I want to thank you all for being here. You've given the committee a tremendous amount to consider as far as whether or not to proceed with something significant on this issue. My suspicion is that this is something we would want to pursue. Thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned.