Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank every one of you for being here today and for your presentations on a crucial topic that some have called the next big epidemic. It's certainly a big problem that's going to face our first nations people. It's going to face all Canadians, but particularly first nations people because of the increased propensity for type 2 diabetes especially.
There have been discussions at this committee in recent meetings, though, affecting all Canadians. We need to work toward improving education in this realm, and I'm the first to step up and say boy, do I have a lot of work to do in terms of understanding food labelling. I think part of our report and part of what government needs to do here is to assist our communities and our first nations communities in terms of education and materials.
We've suggested a shortened or simpler version of the Canada food guide, maybe a two-page laminated document that's pretty easy to understand. Then Canadians can go and dig as far as they want in terms of examples that fit that food guide. Undoubtedly, there are many, many recipe books that conform to that.
I will direct my question toward Ms. Langlois, but I'd welcome input from anyone who'd like to tackle this.
I don't believe we're doing a good enough job in terms of the general practitioner's or nurse practitioner's offices when patients--be they first nations or frankly any Canadians--go in to see their doctors. Are they currently getting educational tools? Here's the issue: it's a big problem, and we need to push healthy eating and we need to push physical fitness and exercise. For our first nations communities, maybe these materials...well, I'd suggest they definitely need to be culturally sensitive and they definitely have to be in languages that everyone understands. These need to be translated documents that absolutely everyone can understand. I think we need to do a lot better in terms of promotion of healthy eating and physical fitness at the health care practitioner level. As well, I've talked about the Canada food guide, etc.
I'd like your opinion as to what kind of job we're doing right now. When families go in.... First nations is our focus today, so let's focus on that. First nations citizens going to see their doctor or their nurse practitioner, are they getting that information--healthy eating and physical fitness--and is that information in their first language?