Mr. Speaker, the Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation of Canada is working with local partners in the region of Peel, metro Toronto and Montreal to help high schools implement a four-hour CPR program into the core curriculum of health and physical education.
The program is based on ACT's successful 1994 project in Ottawa which now involves 10,000 grade nine students each year. Students learn heart health and how to help a family member in an emergency.
ACT's corporate support is led by Astra Pharma, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Merk Frosst and a number of other pharmaceutical companies. As the CPR program expands, local corporate support is necessary to equip schools with CPR mannequins.
I urge members to support the high school CPR initiative as they move into their constituencies and to encourage local corporate support for the CPR mannequins needed to empower our youth and to save lives.