Health Committee on Feb. 14th, 2007

[Farida Gabbani]

There are two strategies, and this is really confusing. I was trying to explain this to people today. There is a federal strategy, and then there's the integrated pan-Canadian healthy living strategy. They are two separate pieces, but $300 million went to the diseases and the healthy living strategy, which is all the work that we all do collectively. We're trying to develop a network there; we don't have any funding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Is there anything further?

[Dr. Heather McKay]

You had lots of points and interesting questions. The one that sort of rose above many of your comments was around integration. I think this is absolutely key. The role the federal government can play is in coming up with the federal solution as to connecting these initiatives across the provinces.

If there is an inclusive model, it can be adapted and customized for every province. It's not exclusive to Nova Scotia or British Columbia. These overarching models capture what is going on in every province. It's about having the vehicle and the resources to begin to communicate and formalize what that looks like.

[Farida Gabbani]

CAHPERD can play this role also, and it has been doing so since 1933, as our national organization for school-based physical education, physical activity, sport and recreation, and dance. Year upon year, they struggle for funding. You never know whether you're going to get it.

I'm a past president of that association, and we didn't even know if we could keep our staff. All of the programs that CAHPERD produces are for all of the country to use, and they're based on best practices. They really struggle.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

But should there be a way for a parent to know whether their school would qualify as a healthy school designation?

[Farida Gabbani]

Absolutely.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

How close are we to that?

[Farida Gabbani]

For our health-promoting schools, we use the CAHPERD criteria.

[Andrea Grantham]

We have a recognition award program. It's basically an assessment for schools. They can strive toward achieving ISO standards for physical education. It's a little bit more complex than this, but essentially it's the time, it's the quality of the teaching, it's what's being offered within the school.

We also have a quality school health initiative, which embraces the comprehensive school health approach. It addresses eight key criteria and areas that schools need to address.

Quite often there are varying issues within different school environments--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

But does it go to the things Heather was talking about? Whether it's a walking school bus, whether it's a bullying program, or whether it's kids being included in the planning, there must be some pretty strict criteria that also include whether or not the vending machines have good stuff in them, etc.

Can you show me a document that includes all of that, and that tomorrow we could give to parents to show what a healthy school should look like?

[Andrea Grantham]

As mentioned, we do have a checklist of overarching themes in areas that need to be addressed--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

On just physical activity or on everything?

[Andrea Grantham]

On healthy school environments.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Go ahead, Heather.

[Dr. Heather McKay]

I do think these groups should come together and revisit that. As you say, there's an understanding now of what CAHPERD is, and maybe we need to reintroduce all of those things with packaging that represents some of these other initiatives as well.

I think it is pretty comprehensive, but I--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Could you have a flag on the top of the school, like the Elmer safety flag, that says this is a CAHPERD school?

[Andrea Grantham]

For the recognition award program, we do have a banner. And that is basically ISO recognition for a school. But that's part of the physical education.

[Dr. Heather McKay]

I would encourage renewal--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

And money.

[Dr. Heather McKay]

--and fresh resources, yes, with fresh integration and maybe fresh packaging.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you.

Madame Gagnon.

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

What you're telling us is interesting. In a way, you've gone to the heart of the matter as regards assistance for the provinces as well as the organizations working with youths to make them aware of better living habits and physical fitness. But you provide a little more than a mere summary of the situation. This issue is clearly the responsibility of the provinces, not the federal government.

You want to be networked with the provinces to discuss objectives that you want to achieve, and I can understand that. However, Quebec has $400 million over 10 years to combat obesity. In each province, a number of departments are involved. It's already difficult and complicated, in agriculture and education, to ensure that the measures are applicable and applied.

I'm quite pleased to have heard you today, but I don't think the solution is to create a national program aimed at integrating all the measures of the provinces. Instead I think that there could be exchanges of information among the provinces, and nothing more.

Quebec has implemented a child care program, but was subsequently told that they wanted to create a national child care program. However, with 200,000 child care spaces, Quebec is definitely one step ahead. Standards and ways of doing things can't be imposed on it.

We know very well that, in cases where the federal government comes to us with a national standard or structure, it may be difficult for organizations to get subsidies if their programs don't meet the new objective. You know what I'm talking about.

I'm always a bit afraid of this kind of situation because it involves bureaucracy. There is a niche for providing the provinces with better assistance. Here I'm talking about the Canada Social Transfer. Cuts have been made to education for a number of years, but if the schools have more money, they'll do more in that field. From what I've heard, the provinces have moved into action against the obesity problem. Quebec has invested $200 million, and the Chagnon Foundation another $200 million over 10 years.

Very specific measures have already been taken in Quebec, for example, to eliminate poor food in the schools, to improve living habits and to change certain approaches to food and physical education in the schools. Groups are involved.

Don't you think it's good to discuss those matters, but that adopting a comprehensive structure or national plan for acquiring better living habits isn't what will resolve the matter?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Ms. Stone.

[Kelly Stone]

I'd like to offer a few comments on that. Certainly, going back to my opening remarks on the joint consortium, it's unfortunate that Quebec is not yet a participant. We would certainly hope that one day they would choose to participate. This is not a formal FPT mechanism. It is a voluntary group of provinces, territories, and, perhaps at some later date, others, who will come together to share best practices. The federal government doesn't in any way take a lead in that. Rather than being the single window, we have behind us sort of an army, in various departments, of all kinds of research data things that are going on that might be helpful. They might not be, but they very well might be helpful.

We can help the provinces and the territories, where they would like our participation, where they would like our assistance related to some of the data collection being done by Stats Canada or some of the programs or some of the campaigns, or maybe we could tweak those in order to better align with where the provinces and the territories would like to go. But beyond that, it is just an excellent forum for sharing, which is really what we want to do.

Certainly, as with many things, not all provinces and territories are in the same position as a result of their geographic context or their priorities. This is a great opportunity for provinces like Nova Scotia and British Columbia, who are doing marvellous things--and I realize Quebec is also--to be able to come together and share with one another what some of those practices are and to see how they might fit the different circumstances across the country or how we might adjust them to fit.

This consortium is new, but we're past the bureaucratic bump of getting up and running. We're actually starting to move now. We're getting some knowledge summaries and some scans out and getting a pretty good website up, through which we can share information with school boards, with parents, with NGOs, as well as with each other. There's some really good, very practical, down-on-the-ground kind of work that is starting to go on, now that we're past how we were going to govern ourselves, and all that sort of thing, and it's a huge opportunity. And because it doesn't have official FPT status--it is a voluntary organization--it perhaps presents ways to work together that in some ways transcend the dilemmas we sometimes have doing that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Fletcher.