Mr. Chair, I look forward to having further conversations with him about his idea. I remember hearing about the Prime Minister attending the round table in Cole Harbour and how inspired he was with what happened when a group of people from all walks of life with various approaches to keeping Canadians healthy, or a well-being initiatives, got together. I also think the member knows that some of the best work on indicators was done by Ron Coleman's group, GPI. I think there are all kinds of good things.
I had round tables both at Dalhousie and Acadia before the launching of the agency, and there was such a huge interest. I think the people of Nova Scotia and in Atlantic Canada, more generally, know that the health status of their citizens is of the worst in the country, and it is extraordinarily important. As we were building the case for each of the six collaborating centres across the country, it was not surprising that Atlantic Canada was asked to deal with the collaborating centre on determinants of health.
It will be extremely interesting, as we develop the collaborating centres, that each of the collaborating centres will be the glue in the region. They will begin to get together with local and provincial public health officials, federal agency officials, the stakeholders, as have been described, and academia. Citizens will be an extraordinarily important part of how we do the next step of identifying best practices, using community laboratories to find out what works and what does not work in the joint project of keeping people well.
The whole longitudinal approach, as the member described, from maternal child and infant to child care, to schools, to youth and sports, to families and healthy places for families to seniors is very exciting. In the whole life cycle approach, as we move forward, we will have to work with great people like Ron Coleman and with people in all aspects of health and health care.
We also have to work with all departments on how we choose health goals for Canada and how we pick some realistic and meaningful targets that people will buy into in the real approach of a strong common purpose, keeping as many Canadians healthy for as long as possible while at the same time respecting local wisdom and local knowledge to get it done.
I am look forward to working with the member and all members of Parliament and with all governments. The first ministers have asked us to work with them in picking these goals and targets. At the same time we have to understand, as the member has described, that there has to be goals around the health determinants, poverty, violence, the environment, shelter and equity as well as the goals around the kinds of choices people make, such as exercise, eating, drugs, alcohol and sexual health. We also have to look at specific outcomes in other epidemics of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, mental illness and lung disease. How do we move forward in picking those targets and how do we--