Health Committee on May 28th, 2019

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

Would you like to see that in a policy? On May 3, Canada's youth policy was unveiled, but it didn't include an action plan. First, I'd like to know whether those of you around the table were consulted. Second, someone suggested yesterday that a parliamentary secretary play a role in Canada's youth policy. What are your thoughts on that?

[Melanie Davis]

I'm sorry but my speaker wasn't working properly for the majority of that. Could you repeat the question very quickly?

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

Would you like to see a parliamentary secretary play a role, or a single point of contact, if you will, for physical activity in Canada's youth policy? Is that something that could be part of a future action plan, something that doesn't exist currently?

[Melanie Davis]

I see it as part of or under the ministry of health but absolutely connected to children and youth. When we're talking about physical activity, it's all ages and all stages, but what we're doing here today is talking about children and youth. I think there is, as I said before, a health crisis that's looming and so attention needs to be focused on this specific audience.

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

Do I have time left for a quick question?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

You have a minute left.

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

Very good.

Yesterday, a Public Health Agency of Canada official told the committee that a considerable amount of research had been done involving the negative impact of screen time and the potential link with youth inactivity. He said no recommendations had been issued with respect to screen time.

We know that schools and school boards make significant investments in technology. I'd like to hear what the Canadian School Boards Association representative, joining us from Winnipeg, has to say. Should screen time and screen-related learning in schools be replaced by outdoor-based programming, for example, at least on a pilot basis?

[Josh Watt]

I think so, yes.

Replacing technology-based programming with a physical education vision is important.

On our end, we make decisions after considering the priorities set by each province's education ministry. When we introduce technology-based education supports for such subjects as math, languages and science, we do so to help young people build the skills they need to succeed before and after they graduate.

Therefore, it is important, in our view, to encourage dialogue and establish a plan that ensures an appropriate amount of time is spent on each area, be it physical skills or physical literacy.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

Now we go to Ms. Damoff for seven minutes.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

It's nice seeing you back in the chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Yes, it's great.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thank you to all our witnesses for being here today.

In Halton region there's a program called ActiveChefs. It's a program that Aman and Kapil Jaspal started for elementary school kids to learn about healthy eating, learn how to cook and make food and also be active. It's an amazing program, which has been going for a number of years.

We talked a fair bit about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity here today. I don't know if any of you have been reading this over the last week. It's not new, but some of my Ontario colleagues have been pushing for a tax on sugary beverages. I know the Conservatives are completely opposed to it, but it would generate $1.2 billion a year. The proposal right now is for a national healthy eating strategy. University of Waterloo research shows that these sugary drinks are going to cost us over $50 billion over the next 20 years. Between the revenue and the health care savings, it would be $37 billion that we would have.

I'm just wondering your thoughts on expanding that beyond just healthy eating in the schools to do something like ActiveChefs does. It's active living and healthy eating combined, which gives those kids the tools they need for a lifetime, quite frankly, to eat well and to be active as part of their everyday life.

Maybe we'll start with the Boys and Girls Clubs. We don't have one in my community, do we?

[Josh Berman]

Not yet.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Okay.

[Josh Berman]

I'll pass it to other colleagues quickly to speak on the school programs, but we do see a huge need for nutrition programs linking closely with physical activity. Our east Scarborough club doesn't start any programming until kids are fed. Otherwise you can't learn STEM. You can't do physical activity. There's nothing you can do with a hungry child. Our programs are increasingly growing around not just healthy snacks but meals and often dinner programs.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

[Inaudible—Editor] do some really good stuff too, but they don't incorporate the active living part of it as much as they do the nutrition part.

[Josh Berman]

Through our Kid Food Nation program, which is running across the country, we are teaching kids how to cook nutritious meals, how to source ingredients, how to prepare them and then how to share a meal with friends and family.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

What are your thoughts on funding it through a tax? Do you have a policy on that?

[Josh Berman]

We're a proponent of these programs being increased, and we're looking for more opportunities for vulnerable children and youth around the country to participate in this type of programming. We believe that the federal government, along with municipal governments and provincial governments, has opportunities to engage with us and others in this programming. I can't speak to how that revenue is generated inside the government, but I do believe there are opportunities to expand these programs. Many children and youth across the country are missing out on active programs and active nutrition programs like these.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

You were nodding your head as well. Do you have any thoughts on this?

[Melanie Davis]

I certainly do. We talked about physical literacy today, but there's also nutritional literacy. Ensuring that young people gain those skills throughout their younger, formative years is really important. PHE Canada does link physical activity and nutrition very strongly and tries to ensure the literacy is developed in both domains.

We're also, like you said about the news from last week, well aware of that and also well aware of conversations around having food programs like lunch programs at school across the country. There are benefits to that in regard to the equity piece. You don't have to come forward to say you don't have food. It's there, it's provided, and so there's a balancing that happens.

We know that physically active kids learn better and fed kids learn better. There are strong links between those two pieces.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I have another question that I want to ask, so maybe I'll stop you there because I only have a few minutes left.

When I was on Oakville council, a young man named Andrei Adam, a grade 5 student, came forward and wanted council to devote money to build a basketball court in his neighbourhood. When we asked him why, he said there was no school planned for his neighbourhood and that it was not the same to play at the end of their driveways with a basketball net. This grade 5 student convinced council to dedicate the funding. I still tell kids that story, that you can have an impact as a young person.

What he wanted wasn't a structured program. He wanted a place where he and his friends could just go and shoot hoops. They could walk to the basketball court. They didn't have to driven to a school.

How important is unstructured play in ensuring that kids are physically active? The scheduled programming is great, but Andrei is a great example of recognizing in grade 5 the importance of being able to just grab your friends to walk to where they want to do the activity, as opposed to being driven, and just being able to shoot some hoops.

Adam.

[Adam Joiner]

It's vitally important to have a mixture of structured and unstructured activities, but underlying all of that is that safe and supportive environment. You want to have the ability for young people to access a sport that they're confident and comfortable in. Sometimes that means trying something alone so that you have an experience, but when you have a program—Boys and Girls Clubs are an example—or a safe space that a young person can go to and learn these skills, that is just an extra insulator to that young person. Having a caring leader or adult close by who can support them in the other avenues of their life, especially if they're coming from a marginalized community, is definitely an add-on to that advantage as well.

We recognize the importance of having unstructured activities and having free play, but we underlie that with support and make sure that young people have that caring person beside them to support them through those activities.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Andrea has a comment, as well.

[Andrea Carey]

Thank you.

Yes, we wanted to reiterate that we did speak about the mix between structured and unstructured play being really important to the development of physical literacy. Over the last two generations, we've gone from children being able to be kind of free-range and go out and explore their environment and interactive activities that allowed them to develop movement skills, confidence and motivation on their own, to, as we said, bubble-wrapping them so they have a really short leash in terms of how they can explore their environment and learn and develop their skills.

We would highly encourage a mix of those opportunities between structured and unstructured, and we echo the comments around those caring, supportive leaders being really important and kids engaging in activities that really inspire and motivate them to engage with their environment and build their confidence and movement skills.