Evidence of meeting #39 for Health in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was school.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5 p.m.
Director, Childhood and Adolescence, Centre for Health Promotion, Public Health Agency of Canada
We're missing Alberta and Quebec. There certainly have been discussions with Alberta, and we're hoping Alberta will choose to join. We'd certainly love to have Quebec as well, because they're doing some very interesting things.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
I think Quebec has done some great things as far as that goes.
5 p.m.
Director, Childhood and Adolescence, Centre for Health Promotion, Public Health Agency of Canada
Indeed, and I'm sure other provinces and territories would benefit from what they're doing.
We have to have a good inventory of who's doing what and what one province or territory is doing that is applicable to another, and then begin to draw in the other actors--the non-governmental organizations, universities, and experts--who can inform the provinces and territories through the working group level.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
You're out of time. I've allowed you the liberty of an extra minute or so.
Ms. Kadis, your turn.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Susan Kadis Liberal Thornhill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I do feel we have an obligation here, as a federal government, to play a leadership role in conjunction with the provinces and territories--without question.
This was touched on by the last speaker. Would it not be appropriate and necessary to encourage through these mechanisms a mandatory amount of time that students would participate in physical eduction?
I know when I was young, if not every day, it was almost every day. Sometimes it wasn't greeted so warmly, but it was very important, just as other activities, such as spelling, etc., were integral parts of the curriculum.
5 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
Yes. That would definitely be a direction we'd recommend to the federal government. We've seen support from international organizations for physical education. I think it would be important for the Government of Canada to make the same recognition and to support legislation towards mandatory physical education time taught by qualified instructors.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Further to that, I think the question is whether we have the jurisdictional ability to do that. Is that what you're looking at?
5 p.m.
A voice
Yes. To encourage, endorse, and support that.
5 p.m.
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
There's not one strategy or one initiative or one group of people that is going to make the difference. The change is generational. It's something that is going to take a long time. When you ask people to change behaviours and lifestyles, it doesn't happen overnight.
We need a comprehensive group of people--all of us--federal government, provincial-territorial governments, communities, municipal government, families. We need everyone.
The Healthy Living Issue Group, which is a group of the Public Health Agency of Canada, is just getting going. We talked about our work plan today. We're trying to develop a network so a lot of the sharing can take place.
There is a best practices portal. Canadian chronic disease prevention has a portal for best practices. So there are things in place. It's a matter of integration: knowing who's doing what, where, when, and a place we can access it. That's part of the work plan of the Healthy Living Issue Group.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
5:05 p.m.
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
Any best practices? Well, Action Schools! BC is a best practice. There is Active Kids, Healthy Kids from Nova Scotia.
5:05 p.m.
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
Oh, from Quebec? Yes. What's it called? Kino-Québec is a really wonderful best practice.
5:05 p.m.
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
Alberta has Ever Active Schools. There are things going on. Saskatchewan has In Motion.
5:05 p.m.
Principal Investigator, Action Schools! BC; Professor, University of British Columbia; Director, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
I would like to address this also, because I do think that physical education is an important part of the solution, but it is no longer the whole solution. It is about changing the culture of schools. It's about healthy eating. It's about making the places where these children spend their time healthy places to be, and providing opportunities wherever possible. It's not a small problem. The solution is complex because the problem is complex, but I don't think that it should be in the too-hard basket. We do have models that can be entertained.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Susan Kadis Liberal Thornhill, ON
If I may, you don't think there is a relationship between the childhood obesity increase and a lessening of physical education hours in the schools per se.
5:05 p.m.
Principal Investigator, Action Schools! BC; Professor, University of British Columbia; Director, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
Yes, it's a lessening of physical activity generally by children. The other part is that you may be surprised that there are no really good data in this country. So when I look back over the last decade, I'm looking at self-reported heights and weights. That's someone calling you up and asking “How tall are you? How much do you weigh?” In trying to address this problem, we also need to take a really hard look at how the federal government can look at resourcing a really comprehensive evaluation as we go forward, to see if any of these things are working. That might be a role.
This isn't just about a website where you can go and talk about what everyone is doing. There has to be a significant investment. These are expensive models, no matter where they're being introduced.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Susan Kadis Liberal Thornhill, ON
What would be a recommendation? Could Statistics Canada participate in that avenue?
5:05 p.m.
Principal Investigator, Action Schools! BC; Professor, University of British Columbia; Director, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
I think CCHS is actually doing direct measures of health and weight, I believe for the first time. Before it was just a small sampling of Canadians, very small numbers in each age bracket. We just do not have good national data. And I think physical activity could also be added to that, a standard tool whereby we can capture that well across this country as we move forward.