Health Committee on Feb. 14th, 2007

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.

On the agenda

Childhood Obesity

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Kelly Stone Director, Childhood and Adolescence, Centre for Health Promotion, Public Health Agency of Canada

Joan Katz Director, Education Planning and Policy, Education Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development

Heather McKay Principal Investigator, Action Schools! BC; Professor, University of British Columbia; Director, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute

Farida Gabbani Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health

Andrea Grantham Executive Director, Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance

Marie-France Lamarche Director, Chronic Disease Prevention, Community Programs Directorate, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Department of Health

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON

Ms. Brown seemed to suggest that only those who are of low income are obese.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON

I never said anything like that.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON

I would think that obesity transcends all income levels. I would like to get some clarification.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON

I know that.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON

Okay, thank you.

One other quick question I have is on funding from an aboriginal perspective. I wonder if you have looked at what was included in this 2006-07 budget with respect to women, children, families, and education--the additional $450 million that was put into this year's budget to deal specifically with those issues.

I have to think that some of the issues you've brought forward today would fall under those funding categories. I would suggest that additional funds were put into this year's budget for that specific area.

Thanks.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield

Thank you very much.

I want to thank the witnesses for coming forward.

There's one thing I noticed there were no questions on. I saw a quick documentary on childhood obesity in the United States, and one of the schools in one of the states had done something rather unique. They actually graded each child on the BMI index and included that on their report card. I thought that was rather extreme at the time, but as the documentary went on it seemed to say they were serious and it was a problem.

We know we have a serious problem in Canada. We hope that our report will be one step in moving this along. I don't think we'll get that extreme here, but they seemed to be taking this very seriously. I know we have to also as a country.

I want to thank you for coming forward and contributing to the committee.

Mr. Fletcher.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Steven Fletcher Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB

I have a quick question for the committee on Bonnie Brown's suggestion of including underweight people as well in the report. If we're going to do something like that we need a more in-depth discussion.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield

That's fine, but you're getting into the report stage.

Thank you very much for your testimony. Our time is gone.

The meeting is adjourned.