Okay, I'm sorry.
I would suggest that the postal subsidy for the food mail program be increased and that a nutritious food subsidy program also be offered to communities that have road access. The food mail program is currently only offered to communities that do not have year-round road access.
It is clear that traditional foods are important for nutrition and well-being. The harvesting of traditional foods also results in improved physical fitness. The environments that support traditional food species must therefore be protected. Carole Lafontaine has discussed other impediments to traditional food consumption today.
Research has shown that breastfeeding may offer aboriginal and other children protection from obesity and diabetes. First nations rates of breastfeeding are low. Breastfeeding must be promoted. The Canada prenatal nutrition program of FNIHB promotes breastfeeding in Inuit and on-reserve first nation communities. The government should ensure continued funding of this program.
Prenatal care for women must be emphasized. The data suggests that many first nations women begin pregnancy obese, gain excessive weight in pregnancy, and have high rates of diabetes in pregnancy called gestational diabetes mellitus. These conditions predispose unborn children to obesity and metabolic disorders such as diabetes later in life. Community environments must support adequate nutrition and activity so that young women of reproductive age can maintain healthy body weights. The focus cannot just be on children.
Jurisdictional gaps and overlaps in health care delivery need to be resolved.
I partner with the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay in all my research projects. I informed members of the board that I would make recommendations today about the federal government's roles and responsibilities in relation to childhood obesity in first nations communities. The perspective of board members was that the federal government should support aboriginal self-government in areas such as health.
The James Bay Cree of northern Quebec were the first on-reserve nation to have self-government and health care, following the James Bay agreement of 1975. Since that time, the James Bay Cree have been part of the provincial health system as a semi-autonomous health region of Quebec, with access to all new federal aboriginal program dollars. They were underfunded for decades. Since the settling of their outstanding treaty issues that established proper financing for their health services, the Cree are now implementing the most comprehensive system of services in the remote north, including a completely integrated public health system.
As is now happening in this region, self-government, with appropriate levels of financing, opens the possibility for northern regions to begin to work on improving the factors that determine the health of the population: social, economic, and environmental, including decreasing obesity prevalence in children.
Thank you for your time.
I will be submitting briefing notes, which add some additional information to what was presented today.