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.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
I have a couple of questions that would probably take a yes or a no answer.
Ms. Gabbani, you mentioned that healthy weight is a better term than obesity because healthy weight includes underweight, which could be from lack of food or it could be teenage girls with anorexia and that sort of thing.
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
Exactly.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
Do you think we should be commenting in our report on underweight, as opposed to limiting it to obesity? Just answer yes or no.
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
Yes.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
Do you have any information that you've been collecting on underweight that you could send to us?
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
I'd have to check with my colleagues. If I do, I will send it to you.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
Thank you very much.
On CAHPERD, Andrea Grantham, what is your budget this year, and how much do you really need to accomplish your goals?
Executive Director, Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
That's a big question. Our budget this year to date is $1.6 million. Three-quarters of that has been generated by us through corporate sponsorship and through our own revenue generation.
Executive Director, Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
Yes.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
Excellent. Do you have a figure for what you'd really want to drive the thing forward to get to ISO 9000?
Executive Director, Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
We could definitely put together a complete wish list of what we'd like to achieve in our budget. We've never really had the option to be able to do that.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
It would be interesting for us to know, if you could do that bit of work for us.
We've heard a lot about the connection between poverty and obesity. My colleague across the way has been touting the importance of the tax deduction for enrolment in sport and dance. Do you really think it's very effective for people who are poor and don't have the initial money to enrol their kids in sport or dance?
Would anybody like to wander into that political area?
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
I would. Nova Scotia has had a tax incentive in place. This is now our second year. The uptake was phenomenal, and 30% of the children under the age of 19 in Nova Scotia claimed that money.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
How many of those families would be considered poor? Is it not pretty well directed at the middle class?
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
No. I want to say that there are so many other programs in place that no one program is going to make the difference.
Kidsport is a program in which low-income children can get funding to participate in sport.
In Nova Scotia, we made an agreement with community services that children in care didn't have to do income statements. If they were in care, they could automatically be funded for sport.
There are also many community organizations. In Nova Scotia, we've created chapters. There's Kidsport, JumpStart, which is the Canadian Tire program, and local programs in Wolfville, for instance, such as Axe Reach. The university has one too.
Liberal
Bonnie Brown Liberal Oakville, ON
Excuse me. I didn't ask you about other kinds of programs. I asked you this. Do you think the tax deduction, where parents have to put money upfront to get a tax deduction when they file in the spring, is going to have much of an impact on low-income families?
I didn't ask about the wonderful programs you're doing in Nova Scotia.
You had a doctor as your premier, and now you have a minister.
Senior Director, Office of Health Promotion, Sport and Recreation Division, Nova Scotia Department of Health
No, they're national programs.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Actually, Ms. Brown, you ask the questions, and they do the answering.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
It doesn't matter. She answered it in the best way she knew.
I will allow you a quick answer, and then I'm going to give Mr. Dykstra a minute.
February 14th, 2007 / 5:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance
Our feeling on the federal tax credit is that it's great to see the government has recognized that physical activities are important. However, as has been stated a few times, it is a small step in a big picture of many activities that need to take place.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
I think you're right. I think all of you would agree it's a first step in the right direction.
You don't agree, Heather?
Principal Investigator, Action Schools! BC; Professor, University of British Columbia; Director, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
I think it's part of a solution. There is limited access to these kinds of programs based not only on income, but on geographic location. So it is benefiting a certain population.