Health Committee on April 23rd, 2018

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the panel for presenting to us.

I want to start off by focusing on our recent Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion, Erica Wiebe.

Again, congratulations. Canada was proud and continues to be proud of you. Great job.

I want to talk a bit about your life before you won the Olympic gold medal and you were at the University of Calgary, in my constituency. As a matter of fact, you are a constituent of mine. I just want to throw that out there.

On your life at the University of Calgary, you mentioned in your presentation that it's tough as a student to get by, especially for one who is a high-level athlete as well. You mentioned that you received an extra $1,000 a month from a sponsor while you were in university and how that impacted your life in a significantly better way.

Did you feel that extra bit of funding played a role in your success at the Olympics and beyond, and in your success at the university?

[Erica Wiebe]

To clarify, I had finished my first degree from the University of Calgary, and I was proceeding part time with a second degree as well as pursuing qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. I was pulling back a little from my studies in pursuing a second degree and focusing my time and energy on training full time as an Olympic hopeful.

As I said, the athlete assistance program at the time was $1,500 a month, and we were paid every two months. As you can imagine, living on $3,000 to get by for over 60 days or so made it a little tight as an athlete living in the city of Calgary—a great constituency, by the way.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

It is expensive, though.

[Erica Wiebe]

Yes.

It was two years out from our Olympic qualifier which was in December 2015. A private sponsor—their son was a varsity team member of mine—reached out and offered to support me as I pursued the Olympic dream. I have told this individual, and I'll tell you today, that without that additional funding, I don't think I would have been able to step on the mats in Rio to able to do what I've done. For you, $2,500 a month might not seem like a lot, but to an amateur athlete at the time, it made a difference. I'm not currently sponsored by a food and beverage company, but many of my teammates are.

Talking to our reach on social media and the constantly evolving landscape of marketing today in Canada, I have about 13,000 followers on Instagram, which is one of the most prevalent social media platforms for our youth today. Only 6% of my audience is between the ages of 13 and 17. The access for youth today to be changed or influenced is tricky, and it's an interesting domain, but I believe the impact that Canadian athletes have on influencing kids to pursue healthy lifestyles, full balanced wellness mentally, physically, and emotionally through physical activity is paramount. That's why I'm here today sharing my story.

Thank you.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

You said that your teammates currently are accepting sponsorship monies from food and beverage and that you're not. You won the gold medal. You are the champion of the sport. Why have you not had that opportunity, or have you chosen not to accept those sponsorships?

[Erica Wiebe]

Teammates is a loose term. It's more like other athletes across other sport domains. I'm in the sport of wrestling in Canada, so there's not a lot of marketability, I guess, on my sport in particular. I guess that would be the issue there.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

I would imagine that now you're in big demand for advertising, especially with—well, not especially, but also with—unhealthy food sponsors. Are you not?

[Erica Wiebe]

I think it's interesting to be an amateur athlete in Canada today. I think the landscape is changing in terms of the quadrennials. We just finished the Pyeongchang games, so a lot of the sponsorship dollars and advertisements were focused on winter athletes. It will be interesting to have the conversation on my experiences as the world and Canada shift toward the Tokyo 2020 games. It's my goal to be there. I'm open for sponsors.

I do a lot of advocacy work. I'm an ambassador with KidSport Calgary, Fast and Female, and Right to Play. PepsiCo is a huge sponsor of KidSport Calgary, and provides dollars to youth who can't afford the funds that are involved in amateur sport. I do a lot of work for them.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

When you see an athlete on the front of a Wheaties or Cheerios cereal box, does that give you inspiration to work harder as an athlete to perhaps one day aspire to be on a cereal box?

[Erica Wiebe]

I think everyone wants to be on a Cheerios box. What I try to do in terms of my athlete brand and what I support is to look for authentic partnerships in what I believe in.

I believe in healthy living, and I believe in a balanced lifestyle. In the future, if I'm involved in support.... I think as an athlete that it's a 10-year journey to get to the Olympic Games. I know mine was. I would be remiss if I said I didn't enjoy a Timbit or two on the way, but what I represent, I think, is a well-balanced, healthy attitude towards life. When I'm looking at sport partnerships, it's about being authentic to my values and to a healthy lifestyle.

I think we athletes today are not just slapping logos on our suits. I think we're advocates for fair play, for equal pay, for everything, for our values. I think all athletes are very intentional about the platform that we have as role models in Canada.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Thanks very much.

Ms. Ramsey, you have seven minutes.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

I think it's a wonderful day to be at the health committee. I'm normally on the trade committee, but I'm happy to be here for a variety of reasons.

I think this conversation is so critical right now to our country. I have two sons who are 15 and 17, so they're right in this target area.

Dr. Warshawski, when you were discussing puberty, certainly my life right now involves dealing with all of these changes. However, I also have a son who has struggled with his weight, so I know the impact of that and the psychological ramifications in a home.

I think that at this table today we're missing the voices of families and children who are in this one-third of Canadians who are suffering from obesity and the challenges it takes to overcome that. I appreciate, Dr. Warshawski, your sharing the story of Zachary with us because I think that's the voice that's missing today: those who really are struggling and trying to correct this under a lot of outside pressure.

I will direct this question to Corinne and Clara.

You talked about these advertising techniques that exist for kids. Certainly, the world has changed from when I was a teenager. Kids have a lot of non-traditional sources, like social media, apps, and games. My sons are gamers. All this is being directed.

Can you speak to what you see in how that expanding market is impacting children? Then if anyone else wants to weigh in on that as well.... I think it's really difficult for us as adults to understand how deluged our kids are by this messaging, and it's coming at them from every angle.

I would welcome your comments on that.

[Corinne Voyer]

I will do it in French. I will speak slowly for the translation.

In Quebec, children are fortunate in that they are protected from advertising. It has been shown that young Quebecers are clearly less exposed to advertising than those in the rest of Canada. The problems are in our grocery stores where all the children’s food products feature characters or bright colours to attract them. In Quebec, we have no control over that. That is why we are of the opinion that Canadian legislation should make sure that advertising on cereal boxes is a little more suitable, as has been done in Chile.

In grocery stores, displays are designed and organized so that children have the products right at their eye level. Products are positioned and cross promoted. In our opinion, the problem for children is mostly in grocery stores and to a lesser extent in restaurants.

In Quebec, the main complaints have been against large companies like Coca-Cola and Kellogg. The companies have adopted a voluntary code, with which they do not comply. The strategies are diverse. I will let my colleague Ms. Couturier discuss that issue.

With regard to teenagers, that is another dynamic that we can talk about. Certainly, there is advertising that targets teenagers, but fortunately, in Quebec, children are considerably less exposed.

[Clara Couturier, Research Analyst, Public Policy, Coalition québécoise sur la problématique du poids]

I would add that, in Quebec, there are few economic catastrophes related to the ban on advertising to children. As Ms. Hugenholtz Sherk noted, advertising strategies are much more sophisticated than before. The situation is not at all the same. Studies prove and literature reviews are clear: food advertising influences young people’s preferences, behaviours and attitudes. We cannot repeat that enough today.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

Thank you.

Does anyone else want to comment?

[Dr. Tom Warshawski]

Sure. I think what you've said underscores the need to take a wide view of marketing and not just television advertising. That said, probably 70% to 80% of the marketing aimed at children and youth is through television, but more and more of it is on the digital platform. Monique Potvin Kent has done some research on this. I think she appeared before your committee last week.

Especially in that younger demographic, those under 13, they are streamed to a few company websites for advergaming. These are sophisticated ways to increase the exposure that the child would have to the product. It's not that hard to find those sites, and it's not that hard to actually regulate those sites.

As they get older, teens are much more dispersed in where they go to. That I don't think is insurmountable, but it's an extra order of difficulty in protecting teens. As Ron Lund was saying, there's the issue of having a legally defensible defence for teens and not overstepping in terms of the ability to market unhealthy products to adults, and I don't know whether we want to be doing that either, but in any event, we have to draw a line someplace.

I think it's doable. One of the good things that the Minister of Health announced was a substantive budget over the next five years to monitor where the advertising and the marketing are going, to make sure that these regulations are as effective in the under-13 demographic as they're supposed to be, because Quebec has had some issues that way, but also, then, to look at what's happening to teens.

This amendment to the legislation isn't, as I take it, “don't worry, you can have all you want, at the teens...”. It's that, okay, right now we're making a strategic retreat, and we're going to take a legally defensible position. We still should protect teens, but we have to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't run into a charter challenge.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

I think that leads into my next question.

I'm going to read part of a Globe and Mail op-ed that you did in 2016, because this really is about the ages from 12 to 17, and I think there's that critical period of time. It stated:

Since 1979, the number of Canadian children with obesity has tripled, with almost one in three children now having excess weight. Increases have been highest among youth aged 12 to 17.

Evidence shows that obesity rates are influenced by the amount of marketing kids are exposed to, and it puts them at risk for many health problems, including heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

Given this, do you believe that there's any public health justification for reducing the age? I acknowledge what you're saying about the minister, but how do we monitor during this period? What is effective monitoring to ensure that this reduction in age is justified?

[Dr. Tom Warshawski]

I think it's going to be difficult but not impossible. I think that much can be done through watching the advertisements, to see if there are particular attributes to those ads that clearly identify teens—and they're there. Again, I'll point to the beverage industry, because they do the best job at advertising to teens. They have teens on their website talking about how they get more friends with this, and asking them to share their likes with other friends. There are some obvious ways they target teens. Having teens in the ads, for instance, makes them much more appealing to teens. I have to chuckle. I was watching Hockey Night in Canada the other night, and they had the guy with the beard eating his Frosted Flakes. I'm actually not that worried about that ad. I don't think it's going to appeal to too many 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds. So there are ways to sell unhealthy foods to adults without infringing on kids. I think there are ways to do it. It's going to take a little bit more study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Thank you very much.

Dr. Eyolfson.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, everyone.

I'd just like to add some clarification to an earlier piece of testimony on the claims about the relative lack of tobacco advertising in sports.

Tobacco companies used to be major sponsors of Major League Baseball. They were sponsors of World Cup skiing up until the 1980s. The World Cup was actually called the Export “A” Cup because it was sponsored by Macdonald Tobacco. There was an official cigarette of the 1984 Olympics. Cigarette advertising used to be much more pervasive than we give it credit for.

Mr. Lund, something kind of stood out here. You were concerned about the time periods. You said that this bill would end up banning “all food and beverage advertising” within certain time periods. How did you come to that conclusion?

[Ronald Lund]

It would be all high-end foods, so basically—

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Your exact words were that this could “ban all food and beverage advertising” at certain times of day.

[Ronald Lund]

Yes.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

All food and beverage advertising?