Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm pleased to be here today to discuss childhood obesity. Let me start by passing on the regrets of our Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, who could not be here today due to illness. This is an important issue to him personally. I'll be representing the Chief Public Health Officer today in my capacity as director general of the Public Health Agency's Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control.
I know that during your meeting last June, committee members identified childhood obesity as a key issue that required long-term study this fall. This is important work. The World Health Organization has declared obesity to be a global epidemic. In Canada, childhood obesity rates have almost tripled over the past 25 years. The health portfolio recognizes that answers to these increasing rates lie beyond the scope of individual Canadians, any one level of government, or any one sector of society. Changes can only come through collaboration with partners in such diverse areas as built environment and targeted prevention activities, in addition to providing increased access to healthy eating options and physical activity.
It will be important for governments and society to reflect on all the tools and mechanisms we posses to determine our direction forward. Today's session is an important step toward strengthening, understanding, and moving ahead in this area. This will involve taking stock of what the evidence tells us about childhood obesity, what work we have under way and can build on, and then developing recommendations on our next steps.
I want to provide you with some broad considerations to reflect on in these areas. This may help launch your discussions and provide a starting point for focusing on questions you plan to probe in greater depth.
I have mentioned that obesity is increasingly prevalent in Canada, with the most dramatic increases reported in children. This increase during recent years is likely a result of both an upward shift in energy intake--people are eating more--and a downward shift in energy expenditure; in other words, people are moving less. Obesity that begins in childhood is particularly troublesome, since the longer a person is obese, the greater the health risk.
There have also been a number of environmental changes over the past years that are considered key influences on childhood obesity--for example, dramatic increases in the availability of fast foods, which are often poor in nutrition and energy dense, or high caloric; larger portion sizes; environments that do not support physical activity; and the increase in leisure and passive leisure activities such as television, Internet, and video games.
Today there are a number of social and cultural factors that impact our own lives and those of our children. Many things that we now accept as a normal way of life, such as driving instead of walking, and eating take-out food instead of a home-cooked meal, may be contributing to growing levels of the early onset of childhood obesity.
Children are also particularly vulnerable to environmental conditions, such as reductions in school physical activity programs, food and video computer game advertising that now targets kids specifically, and choices within the home environment. We also know that ethnic racial groups vary in the prevalence of obesity. Some of Canada's most profound challenges in obesity lie within our aboriginal communities. The obesity rates for adults and children in Canada is estimated to be the highest among aboriginal peoples, followed by Caucasian, black, and Latin American populations.
Given the evidence we have accumulated to date, what have we done to address childhood obesity? Over the past few years the health portfolio, including the Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and other federal departments such as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, have developed a number of initiatives in partnership with provincial and territorial governments; other federal departments; first nations, Inuit, and Métis communities; and non-government organizations.
I want to highlight some of these initiatives for you. First there is the pan-Canadian healthy living strategy that was approved by the federal-provincial-territorial governments in October 2005. As part of the strategy, governments agreed to important targets to help support Canadians in achieving healthy weights through physical activity and healthy eating. There is also the work of the joint consortium for school health, which was created in a partnership with federal-provincial-territorial ministers of health and education to provide a coordinated approach to school health. The joint consortium develops tools to assist in the development of programs, policies, and best practices that will improve the overall health of young people and address specific issues and risk factors such as healthy eating and physical activity.
The health portfolio has been active on the research front as well. Through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, specifically the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health, and the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health, approximately $63 million has been invested in obesity research. In fact, the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes has made obesity its single strategic priority. Of the $63 million, $9 million has been specifically directed toward new projects to address the problem of childhood obesity and $4.1 million to research obesity in aboriginal populations. The knowledge generated by these projects will help to assess and identify the most effective interventions and prevention strategy for obesity and provide evidence for sound policy decisions.
Some of the studies specific to youth have focused on understanding the challenges that children believe make it difficult to manage their weight in school, out of school, and in the family home and on developing improved methods for assessing obesity in children and adolescents. Health portfolio members have also developed and promoted national guidelines for physical activity and healthy eating to assist Canadians in their efforts to be physically active and to make healthy food choices.
The Public Health Agency published “Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living”, which targets both adults and children. The guide explains how to achieve better health by making physical activity an important part of daily living. For example, it provides strength, flexibility, and endurance activities that can help Canadians have more energy, move more easily, and get stronger.
Health Canada has developed guidelines for healthy eating, including “Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating”. These guidelines underpin nutrition and health policies, standards, programs, services, and other nutrition initiatives across the country. “Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating” is currently under revision, and the release of the updated food guide is planned for late 2006 or early 2007.
We have also undertaken work to address this issue through program development and implementation, research initiatives, and public education. Likewise, provincial and territorial governments are putting into place policies and programs to address this concern. But since childhood obesity rates continue to rise, there is a growing consensus across Canadian society that more needs to be done.
As Canada is one of the member states that have adopted the World Health Organization's global strategy on diet, physical activity and health, we remain committed to improving public health through healthy eating and physical activity. The health portfolio remains committed in particular to addressing childhood obesity and to working in partnership with all sectors to develop effective and appropriate actions and interventions.
We look forward to the results of your study and to your recommendations for actions. These will become focal points for future work in this important area.
Thank you.