Health Committee on Feb. 1st, 2011

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to say that you've been doing good work, and I'm very excited by what's been going on so far, but there are a couple of things I want to ask.

You've talked in your report about decreasing children's exposure to the marketing of food and beverages that are high in fat, sugar, and sodium. I know that educational programs can do that, and labelling can, and so on. But what about advertising on Saturday mornings, when kids are watching TV, and they're watching cartoons and there's all this food advertised that's bad for them? Are you doing anything about the advertising? That's been a major issue. That's the first question.

Second, you've talked about increasing the availability and accessibility of nutritious foods. Increasing availability and accessibility is great, but under accessibility, we know that the most obese kids come from low-income families. What are we doing about helping to make nutritious foods more available to poor families in terms of cost? We saw what Obama's wife did when she was working with Walmart to talk about how they were going to make good food cheaper than bad food. That's one question I wondered if you'd consider.

Finally, I wanted to ask you a question about additives. You talked about adding good things. But take, for instance, vitamin D. Everyone knows that it's the magic vitamin, and everyone's busy eating tons of vitamin D, but we also have vitamin D added to various foodstuffs. Has any consideration been given to asking if we're going to be overdosing a bunch of people on stuff? Because everyone is trying to take the good stuff, and it's added to so many products. Who is checklisting that? How is someone going to be able to tell somebody to remember that they're getting it in additives in food? That, to me, is an important thing.

I had another question to ask, but I'll stick to those three at the moment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You have only three, Dr. Fry?

Okay, who would like to start?

[Kim Elmslie]

I'll start, Madam Chair, with your permission.

Let's start with the question on marketing and advertising to children. Dr. Fry, we are seized with this question as well. Health ministers, last fall, in their endorsement and launching of the framework for action to combat childhood obesity, have put a priority on investigating measures we can use as federal, provincial, and territorial governments, working with the business sector and working with the NGO sector, to find ways to reduce the impact of marketing on children.

You may also know that in May 2010, Canada was one of the member states that endorsed the WHO recommendations on the marketing of food and beverages to children. So we are aligned with and working with our international colleagues, as well.

This is a very important issue, and we are committed, as the health ministers across the country are, to looking at ways we can effectively deal with that issue.

So thank you for that. That was a really important question.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

What about the cost of food for low-income families, and what about additives? Those are the other two questions.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

I was going to go a little bit further with respect to nutrition profiling.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Well, I want to get to those other two questions, and being a chair myself, I'm always aware of the tick-tock time. So I just want to get to those two. Then, if you've answered them, we might be able to go to the....

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

I think we've already talked a little about the vulnerable populations in the north and CAPC and the aboriginal head start program. Certainly those are programs that are under way through the federal government.

As well, again, through the FPT access and availability to nutritious foods, we are working with the different levels of government, the different provinces and territories. And of course, from the federal perspective, we are looking at the lessons that can be learned from these different programs.

Because it's not only Nutrition North that's under way and those other two programs. Newfoundland and Labrador have particular programs that contribute to some breakfast programs. It's happening as well in Ontario, in Manitoba, and in B.C. The group I'm chairing is actually looking at the different programs that are in place to figure out whether there are ways we can actually take the best lessons from those and extend them further.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

While you're on that thought, I wanted the answer on the additives, I guess, if somebody can quickly answer.

I wanted to ask if you're considering looking at taxing high-fat, high-sodium foods so that they aren't so available off the shelves to people. It's a big-issue question.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

We're in this evidence-gathering stage, so we're looking at all different initiatives that have been done around the world. We have funded an international scan to look at what other countries are doing on this. We're also looking at what we're doing in Canada on that.

So with about five seconds, I'll pass it over to....

[Dr. Samuel Godefroy]

On the addition of vitamin D, in fact it's actually the addition of nutrients.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

That's my example, but there are so many other things.

[Dr. Samuel Godefroy]

Yes, it's essentially the addition of nutrients. In fact, this is an area that is closely scrutinized under our regulations, so essentially before having the approval for the addition of a vitamin such as vitamin D to a number of foods, it has to be evaluated by our scientists. The issue of exceeding the upper limit in a zone that may be dangerous to consumers is accounted for in that approval. It is actually looked at in that regard.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you so much.

We will now go to Mr. Uppal.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for coming.

It's interesting, it almost sounded like Ms. Fry was proposing another tax on food over there for a minute.

Ms. Elmslie, you had mentioned childhood obesity, and you described the collaborative commitment of curbing childhood obesity as a federal-provincial-territorial framework for action to promote healthy weights. Could you please tell us more about what the federal government is doing in support of the framework to help children and youth achieve healthy weights?

Could you also touch on video games? It's our understanding that video games are affecting childhood obesity. It obviously affects childhood fitness levels or activity levels. Has Health Canada looked at that as part of childhood obesity?

[Kim Elmslie]

Thank you very much for the question.

Certainly as we're moving forward and have put a priority on childhood obesity, we're looking at all measures, screen time being one of them--the time kids are spending in front of computers, in front of the television, playing video games. Those are a concern for all of us. We are looking carefully, both internationally and within Canada, at what are the best practices, at what are the ways we can support parents, support kids in schools, support communities in finding ways to get kids moving.

Also, it's from the perspective of avoiding the impacts of marketing and advertising to kids. If they're not watching so much TV, they're not getting bombarded with those advertisements either.

So there are lot of benefits to that approach, going forward.

I will come back to the question of the federal-provincial-territorial work around childhood obesity. This is, from our perspective, very groundbreaking and very exciting. We have all the health ministers across the country lined up together. They've recognized the problem of childhood obesity and they've said they're going to work together. But not only that, they're going to champion this, because they're going to reach out to other sectors, as health ministers, and ask, how can you be a part of the solution?

This is not about saying government is going to do everything. This is about government being the enabler. Through the process of engagement that will be launched in the next few weeks, we're specifically going to go to youth, who have the best ideas about what can be done to help them be champions within their own schools, within their own communities, and within their own families for moving forward on childhood obesity.

This is about starting a national dialogue with Canadians, and it's about having Canadians be the innovators, as we know we can be, and the finders of those solutions. We're in a really exciting time in this country around the prevention of chronic disease, and clearly childhood obesity is where we need to start. We want those early behaviours to be the best behaviours. We don't want to have to change behaviours when they're teenagers; we want them to carry those behaviours through their teens and into adulthood.

The framework I talked about in my introduction and the work of FPT governments is the way the federal government is exercising its leadership role in its jurisdictional mandate.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

There's something you mentioned about communicating with young people. What tools do you expect to be using to communicate with them? What do you figure is the best way to actually get to them and to get that feedback?

[Kim Elmslie]

It's through social media, the things that some of us are still afraid of, Twitter and Facebook and all of those things that our children are using all the time. We'll be using those mechanisms to talk to them, to hear their input, and most importantly, to engage them in the solutions so that they become the owners of those solutions. Social marketing will be a major feature of our work going forward, and our engagement strategy will make use of technology, to the extent possible, so that we are reaching kids.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

You have about another minute, Mr. Uppal.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB]

Dr. Hutchinson, do you have something to add to that?

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

Really what I'm thinking of is when I talked about the eat well and be active tool kit, so that we are working together to make sure we have ways we can get those key messages out to children as well. This makes it easier for the educators to really have everything they need to be able to move forward with activity plans.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

With the committee's permission, can I ask a question? Is that okay? I try not to do that.

In the schools it's amazing that we're in a day and age right now when we're actually looking at all these obese young people, and there are reasons for it. The social networking, the computers, that's a lot of it. You were talking about having the kids make some of these decisions and interact, but I'm wondering--and I know schools are provincial jurisdiction--if at the federal level you have ever gone to our provincial partners and talked about making physical education.... I know that's provincial jurisdiction. I was a teacher. I'm very aware of that. But along with this packaging, I'm wondering, would it be good to have recommendations in terms of action?

Some schools I know now do not have physical education. They don't. It has been taken out of the curriculum because of the cutbacks. And I know at the federal level we hit the post-secondary education piece, but we do have the Canada food guide and we do have guidance that can be there for possible action that might be a catalyst, not to infringe on other jurisdictions but to outline the importance of this happening.

When you talk about breakfast programs, I know what that means, because I had one in one of my schools. Kids came to school hungry. So that is provincial jurisdiction, but there's still that umbrella.

I'm wondering, have we looked at something like that? I know you've done a lot of great work, and I wonder if that has been an aspect.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

Perhaps I'll start, not on physical activity, but with respect to school food guidelines.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

But I want you to talk about physical activity.

[Dr. Hasan Hutchinson]

Pardon me?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Physical activity too, Dr. Hutchinson.