Thank you for your comments and for your studies on obesity. We need to adopt a different attitude in order to tackle the issue of junk food properly. Several of you have given us different opinions on whether to use incentives or disincentives. The government will have to choose between a credit or a special junk food tax.
This is an area that requires several initiatives, including education, which has not been discussed much. In my opinion, we need participation at many levels, including the parents, social circle and the educational sector.
Mr. Clark made an important point. We need to use several kinds of social programs in order to better support the most underprivileged families because social class is also an important factor in obesity. That does not mean that there is no obesity amongst people who earn more, however they perhaps have more means to help themselves when they want to take control of their lives.
Obesity is not only a federal government problem but also a provincial one. Provinces must take steps to intervene amongst children in schools and to better assist families through social programs.
You mentioned that any initiative taken to tackle the problem of obesity are important, including the Canadian social transfer and the tax system. We seem to be moving away from the issue, but after having considered the matter of obesity, the government, through its legislative framework, will indicate which direction to follow or what to think about in terms of ways of tackling obesity.
Mr. Clark is the one who spoke about the problem in terms of social programs. For example, poor families would have more money to feed themselves and to clothe themselves if there were more social housing. We know that people who have less money are especially affected by these problems.
A no-smoking campaign was undertaken and it was successful. Do you think that campaign could be an example which might help us find solutions, in terms of the steps taken to tackle smoking, its impact on people's quality of life, the risk of lung cancer, etc. Even though many continue to smoke, people now have a greater fear of smoking, because they know more about its effects.
Eating habits are also difficult to change. We all eat junk food, chips, for example. Some people have told me that when they open a big bag of chips they have to get right to the bottom of the bag.
Do you think that the successful anti-tobacco campaign could serve as an example to plan a junk-food awareness campaign?