Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
I'm Dr. Audrey Hicks. I'm the president of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. I'm accompanied by Mary Duggan, the manager of CSEP. We would like to thank you for inviting us to make a presentation to this committee.
Our society, which has existed since 1967, represents 4,500 members throughout the country. Our organization is committed to promoting healthy lifestyles, and regular physical activity has been clearly shown to be related to improved health. We are the principal body for physical activity, health and fitness research, and personal training in Canada—the gold standard of health and fitness professionals--and we are dedicated to getting Canadians safely active.
Together with the Public Health Agency of Canada, we developed the first Canadian physical activity guidelines for adults in 1998. Guidelines for older adults, and then children and youth, followed in 1999 and 2002.
Guidelines don't last forever, though. Advances in exercise science over the past 10 to 15 years convinced us that it was time for revision. After a four-year process involving systematic reviews, rigorous consultations, and input from over 1,000 industry stakeholders, experts, and international bodies, in January we released the first ever evidence-based physical activity guidelines for three different age group categories.
The physical activity guidelines for children and youth, adults, and older adults detail the recommended amount of physical activity to achieve health benefits. We hope you will take the time to view the guidelines that were provided to you this afternoon. They are accompanied by a written brief that outlines our recommendations to this committee.
The guidelines are important, but we would be naive to think that this is the end of the line. Stable--if not growing--funding for the promotion of healthy living is essential. This funding is an investment for our future.
Our first recommendation is that the Government of Canada support the development of sedentary behaviour guidelines for all age groups, the completion of physical activity guidelines for preschool children and gap groups, and the completion of physical activity clinical practice guidelines for persons with chronic disease.
We further recommend that funding from organizations such as PHAC be stable and reliable. The agency must be open and transparent in its relations with stakeholders. We were pleased to see that at the February 1 meeting of this committee, PHAC mentioned tart it would hold consultations with stakeholders as part of the pan-Canadian healthy living strategy. We are confident that those will be meaningful and transparent consultations with an intent to find real solutions to real problems.
CSEP also oversees two industry-leading health and fitness certifications: the CSEP-certified personal trainer and the CSEP-certified exercise physiologist. These certifications are no walk in the park. Applicants must complete post-secondary studies in human kinetics or health sciences. They must pass a national board examination. They must demonstrate a lifelong commitment to safe physical activity and healthy lifestyle choices.
We strongly believe that if the federal government supported the official recognition of these qualifications, then even more Canadians would be able to benefit from receiving accurate physical activity advice and services from qualified professionals.
We view this committee's role as crucial to setting direction and reviewing what is done. We welcome your initiative in starting this study and we hope you will regularly review the work done and consider developing a report on healthy living in our country.
While we think the government is on the right track in encouraging Canadians to get healthier and lead more active lifestyles, we know there's more work to be done. Our best chance for success is to work together with partners like ParticipACTION and PHAC to ensure that all Canadians have access to the best physical activity messages and opportunities. We truly believe that together we can help Canadians make positive changes to live healthier.
Thank you for your time.