If we could perhaps get copies of that, I would appreciate it.
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.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON
If we could perhaps get copies of that, I would appreciate it.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
Thank you.
I would like to commend the panel. It was a very interesting presentation.
I also have a question to StatsCan, for Margot, going back to the same page in terms of the cultural communities. I would like to address this question to Diane as well.
The population in my riding is 60% to 70% aboriginal. In fact, I have many first nations. I notice the brief refers to off-reserve aboriginals. I'm just wondering whether there is a working relationship between the first nations and Inuit health branch and Stats Canada in terms of this issue.
12:05 p.m.
Senior Analyst, Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Diane, you'd probably be better able to address that.
12:05 p.m.
Scientific Director, Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
What I can say is that, first, as you may be aware, we do have an Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health at CIHR. We've worked closely with my colleague, Dr. Jeff Reading, on issues around aboriginal peoples' health and diabetes. We've co-funded a number of projects. We illustrated one there.
So we are trying to work with communities that are at greater risk of obesity and developing subsequent chronic diseases. We are also working with the first nations and Inuit health branch and other components of the Public Health Agency at the level of trying to ensure that we can bring researchers and individuals who are working on health promotion to the same table.
Actually, one of the slides I didn't use, the very last slide in my presentation, illustrates the knowledge cycle. One of the things we've become really clear about in this country--and this is true around the world--is that when we put money out the door for health promotion, often the money stops at the point in time when you ask about evaluation of the impact of that particular activity. So we've been working hard behind the scenes with colleagues who are doing health promotion to ensure the systems and mechanisms that are in place to actually get the evaluation and research done on those health promotion programs actually are used. That's really a critical systemic problem that needs to be fixed in order for us to actually know what the impact of different interventions is.
We certainly know that as you move from culture to culture, the way you approach, say, encouraging physical activity is not going to work the same way for one culture as it might for another. It's really important to have people on the ground level working with different communities and for us to understand what the impact of those efforts actually is.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
I'm going to take this back to Margot again. I want to explore this issue a little bit.
Margot, are you telling me that when Stats Canada does this type of work, they do not work with the first nations and Inuit health branch in terms of these statistics? Are these off-reserve numbers you're looking at only in the aboriginal community?
12:10 p.m.
Senior Analyst, Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
Yes. The Inuit community health survey does not interview on reserve.
12:10 p.m.
Senior Analyst, Health Statistics Division, Statistics Canada
The aboriginal people's survey goes on reserve, but not the Canadian community health survey.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
Back to Diane.
Diane, one of the numbers on page 7 talks about the cycle of social health. This is one of the impacts of the issue. As we look at off-reserve numbers in the aboriginal community where we know obesity is an issue, we know type-2 diabetes has become a huge and critical issue among aboriginal children, and it's growing very rapidly. This is going to have an impact in that sense as well.
As the panel has said, the obesity issue is an epidemic and it's growing rapidly in the Canadian population, among Canadian children. When you look at the first nations aboriginal population, the impact is even greater, and the health issues are very critical.
How do you see the pan-Canadian approach working more closely with the research institutes for aboriginal health?
12:10 p.m.
Scientific Director, Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
Let me draw your attention to the list of solutions to complex problems on page 15, because when the problem is this complex, you need to recognize that what you do in one community may not work in another. You need to support individual initiatives, not just those of the individual but of individual communities. We need mechanisms supporting individual communities to make their own decisions about what will work within their community. We then need to understand how that works if we're ever really going to tackle the problem.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Tina Keeper Liberal Churchill, MB
I agree with that. I understand that.
My concern is that the first nations health issues are left off the map.
12:10 p.m.
Scientific Director, Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
They're certainly not off our map. As I said, not only do I, but I know my colleague, Jeff Reading, works closely with the first nations and Inuit health branch in attempting to solve the problem.
June 15th, 2006 / 12:10 p.m.
Bloc
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to be part of this committee again.
I would like to get your views on a legislative proposal that was made by one of our colleagues in the 38th Parliament. A Liberal Party member, Tom Wappel, had tabled a bill requiring restaurant owners and particularly the owners of big restaurant chains serving fast food like McDonald's to divulge the calorie counts or the absence of nutritive value of all foods sold in their restaurants. He wanted this information to be posted on menu boards and menus.
Do you think that it would be an educationally interesting way of fighting the obesity issue? This is my first question.
Then I would like to question Peter about obesity in low-income neighbourhoods. It was not part of the host of solutions that you proposed. I do not know if my colleague has reintroduced this bill. I didn't see it. Do you think that it would be a good solution?
12:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada spoke in favour of that bill at this committee last year. We recognize some logistical problems for certain restaurants, but it became clear that those calorie counts are known. They're often on the back of a tray liner in some restaurants. They could be more visible and up on the menu boards. While that would not be a comprehensive solution, it would be helpful to consumers. We all know a huge percentage of our families now consume their food outside the home.
12:15 p.m.
Director, Health Policy, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
Just to add a comment to that and to follow up on your second point, there is emerging research in Canada that also shows a preponderance of fast food and, I would say, higher-fat food choice establishments in lower-income neighbourhoods than there are in middle- and upper-income neighbourhoods. So I think the more information we give Canadians in those neighbourhoods, the better.
12:15 p.m.
President and CEO, Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition
I'd like to concur. We've done studies tracking nutrition trends. Consumers really do look at this sort of information on a package label, and knowledge is power. So from a fast food perspective, people need to know that, and they may change their choices when they know that information.
12:15 p.m.
Bloc
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
Let me say something parenthetically before I ask a question to Peter. Here on Parliament Hill, there are two gymnasiums one of which is for parliamentarians. I am somehow responsible for the acquisition of equipment. It is very important in all professional fields to encourage people to engage in physical activity. More and more parliamentarians are engaging in physical fitness in the gymnasium. I have not lost hope that someday we will see our Chairman there, even if he is very thin.
12:15 p.m.
Some voices
Ha, ha!
12:15 p.m.
Bloc
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
So there is a correlation between the availability of physical fitness equipment at work and the likelihood of engaging in physical activity.
In fact, I would like to know if we have scientific data on the following issue. What is the variable that encourages people to engage in physical activities, for instance in low-income groups? For an inactive person who watches a lot of television and likes all interactive games like Nintendo and similar types of games that my generation didn't have, even if I am in my early forties, what variable would trigger a desire to take up physical activities? Is there a scientific answer to that question? Is it the parents' behaviour? The proximity to sports equipment in the community? A tax incentive? Do we have scientific data on the variable that makes someone go from sedentarity to physical activity?
As usual, it was a short question, Mr. Chairman. I haven't changed.
12:15 p.m.
Associate Professor, School of Physical and Health Education and Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Queen's University
I could try that.
It's such a complex issue. There are stages of change theory and what makes people want to take up physical activity. Where they are in the cycle will depend on how you approach that person to engage them in physical activity.
Now, this is the area of health psychology. We have a number of excellent health psychologists in Canada right now being funded by CIHR and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, trying to get at these exact issues. We don't know how to engage people in physical activity and get them to maintain it. We just don't know.
