I thank the honourable member for the question, through you, Mr. Chair.
It is true that the government is looking at various ways to promote the need for physical fitness and participation in sport among Canadians. We also have a campaign commitment to reintroduce the Awards of Excellence, those badges that you and I probably went through the public school system with. I have made it clear to officials at Sport Canada that we will only proceed if, first, the results can be shown--if the program can be structured so that results are ensured--and second, if there is value for money. To this point, we have not reached an agreement yet with ParticipACTION, but those certainly are two criteria that need to be in place if we are to proceed.
With respect to some of the criticisms that have been out there, I believe they've been unfounded. There were suggestions that this would be a sole-source contract. That is factually incorrect. This would be a contribution agreement, and contribution agreements are subject to a set of Treasury Board guidelines than are different from those for contracts, so the information that was reported out there was factually incorrect.
It was also suggested that existing organizations out there could undertake this work or are undertaking this work. That too is factually incorrect. There are a number of organizations out there--multi-sport organizations and other non-governmental organizations, to be sure--but none of them is engaged in a national public awareness campaign to promote the need for physical activity and sport.
The reason we think it's a good idea to embark on this path, just to finish up, is to look at the good example of good public policy with respect to anti-smoking. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s there was a plethora of research to show that smoking was bad for your health. There was no doubt about that, but it wasn't until governments in Canada put in place regulations to address the sale of tobacco to minors and restrict the sale of tobacco, as well as a public awareness campaign, that you really started to see a significant decline in smoking among various groups in Canada. it wasn't until those two pieces were put in place. It's a public policy success story.
We have a similar parallel with challenges around a lack of physical activity. It's been clear in the research. There has been a plethora of research since the 1950s and 1960s that being physically active, being physically fit, is tied to good health care outcomes--good cardiovascular health and the like--but we've not seen a decrease, or we've not been able to tackle this problem. Our government's view is that the children's fitness tax credit, which the finance department has estimated will invest up to $160 million a year into children's fitness and sports, plus a public awareness campaign that's tied to some of the things we talked about during the campaign, like the Awards of Excellence, would be very good two pieces of the public policy puzzle to put in place to attack this challenge. That's where we're coming from.