Mr. Speaker, each year on April 7, the World Health Organization celebrates World Health Day. This year, the theme for World Health Day is “Healthy Environments for Children”.
The purpose of the day is to focus on creating healthy settings for children at home, at school, and in the community.
Through the national children's agenda and the first ministers agreement on early childhood development, the government has already demonstrated a strong commitment to having a positive impact on the psychosocial and economic factors that influence children's health. Recent investments in the health care system and the health accord will also benefit children who need treatment for physical and mental illness.
However, a clean environment is also crucial to healthy children's growth and development. Children can be more vulnerable than adults to the harmful effects of environmental threats because of their unique exposure patterns, behaviours and stages of development they are going through.