Health Committee on May 28th, 2019

[Adam Joiner]

We definitely see it as a priority to support young people making good choices. A lot of that is the education piece of proper nutrition and offering options that are tasty, but also are nutritious and showing that food has a direct impact on how you feel.

There is a direct correlation between those pieces and we invest quite a bit of time and effort in showing children and youth that access to good food is important and eating good food is important. Again, that goes beyond Boys and Girls Clubs. Many social agencies spend a lot of time trying to teach that lesson.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

The reason I ask is that there is a bill at the federal level that does exactly that, Bill S-228. It's currently stalled in the Senate, unfortunately, even though it passed in the House of Commons. If you were to press the senators holding up the bill, everyone would benefit.

Along the same lines, prevention is another dimension that comes into play.

A lot of focus has been on the benefits of physical activity outside the school environment, but shouldn't we promote prevention much earlier on? I've been pregnant twice, so prenatal classes come to mind. Why not take advantage of those classes to support prevention efforts, promoting healthy eating and explaining the importance of being active with your child to expecting parents?

I mentioned the support available to parents in Quebec. From a public health standpoint, shouldn't the federal government, on its end, invest in prevention activities aimed at parents, using prenatal classes or some other means? The government could launch a TV and radio campaign to give parents helpful tips they could use to convince their children to be more active, for instance.

My sister is a doctor. When she recommends 30 minutes of physical activity a day to parents, they tell her they don't have time. Even if she reduces it to 15 minutes a day, parents tell her they still don't have time. Finally, when she recommends at least five minutes a day, they don't dare say they don't have time, but they don't follow her recommendation.

Wouldn't it help to have the federal government launch an education campaign to give parents tips to increase their children's level of physical activity?

[Josh Watt]

In our view, Ms. Quach, programming at every level is important, prenatal, perinatal and postnatal.

In Manitoba, we have early childhood and family centres. All French-speaking parents receive dairy vouchers for free, regardless of household income. Promoting community-based education programs is essential, especially to make sure children receive proper nutrition.

[Richard Way]

The answer is yes. We need bold strategies to make change. Yes to prenatal education. Yes to banning advertising. Yes to taxes on sugary consumables. We work closely with a self-funded organization that has a website called activeforlife.com that is targeting parents, but it's a self-funded initiative.

All of these need to be invested in so that we can change these dramatically poor statistics that were presented throughout the morning. It's like yes, yes, yes, let's take action on these things.

[Melanie Davis]

I had a final point about how we need to move forward. At the forefront of our efforts, we need to recognize the disproportionality in regard to either the overrepresentation of certain groups or the under-representation. Prenatal classes, for example, are they really reaching those that are disproportionately affected?

It's not okay to do more of the same thing. We have to do something different. Prenatal classes are a fantastic suggestion, but my recommendation would be to evaluate if we're reaching those that absolutely need that support. It requires different people at the table to answer those questions, different actors. I would urge to do it differently.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I want to thank all of our witnesses today. You've done an excellent job. Unfortunately, we're at the end of our time.

Madam Quach.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

May I introduce a motion calling on the government—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Unfortunately, because the committee has a reduced quorum, it is not allowed to have any motions or votes.

I want to inform the committee members, though, that we will be doing drafting instructions for this topic this afternoon at the end of our meeting.

The meeting is adjourned.