Mr. Speaker, it is my honour today to rise to support Motion No. 513 to assist and encourage provincial and territorial governments, the medical community and other groups to lessen the burden on Canada's health care system.
I must take a moment to thank my colleague, the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, for this excellent motion and all her good work in the health committee for her constituents and all Canadians.
Specifically, I wish to address healthy living and injury prevention and share with Canadians the great work our government is doing in these areas. Our government takes healthy living and injury prevention very seriously. We have made investments to address a variety of health issues, we have been working collaboratively with the health community and other sectors, provinces and territories and we are actively promoting healthy choices and behaviours in support of environments across our great country.
Motion No. 513 underlines the importance of focusing on healthy living and injury prevention, to support the country's economic activity, to contribute to the sustainability of the health care system and to encourage children and youth to become healthy adults.
My hon. colleague's Motion No. 513 clearly reflects and aligns with our government's healthy living initiatives. For Canadians, it means creating environments where healthy food choices and opportunities for physical activity are available. These are important health considerations for all of us and we are all responsible, parents, community groups, governments and the private sector. Our children need to be raised in health-promoting and safe environments in which healthy choices are easy choices. We know childhood is a critical stage for establishing these positive trends for life.
These environments support all Canadians: young, old, men and women, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, recent immigrants and people who have lived here for generations. It is never too late and the time is always right to start a healthy living path. I encourage all members here to do so.
To date, I am proud to say that the Government of Canada has undertaken a number of significant initiatives to demonstrate its commitment to healthy living. This government proudly works with provinces and territorial health and healthy living and wellness ministers on these issues.
Most recent, on September 14, the federal health minister, together with her provincial and territorial counterparts, endorsed a declaration on prevention and promotion, which will guide their efforts to promote healthy living across Canada. It signals the need to achieve a better balance between prevention and treatment.
In addition, in response to Canada's high rates of childhood obesity, ministers also released “Curbing Childhood Obesity: A Federal, Provincial and Territorial Framework for Action to Promote Healthy Weights”. As a first step, they will engage citizens, governments and non-government partners and industry to develop a shared approach to turn the tide on childhood obesity.
We all agree that childhood obesity is a national health challenge and will require all sectors of society to get involved to change the social, economical and physical environments that influence the health of children and their families. As a parent, I am proud of our endorsement of the framework to promote healthy weight among children.
This government also has a long-standing relationship with provincial and territorial governments on the pan-Canadian healthy living strategy, which has addressed the issues of physical activity, healthy eating and the relationship to healthy weights, just to name a few.
The pan-Canadian healthy living strategy acts as a focal point for organizations across all sectors to collaborate and build upon each other's innovative strategies and initiatives in an integrated and coordinated way. The strategy focuses among other priorities or issues of physical inactivity and obesity. It also includes injury prevention as a priority.
It is through the integrated strategy on healthy living and chronic disease that the federal government advances the objectives of the pan-Canadian healthy living strategy. The federal effort addresses common risk factors for disease, which are largely preventable. It measures the impacts of chronic diseases on Canadians, it identifies and promotes effective prevention programs and makes specific investments in major chronic diseases, including cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Recently, the government has taken innovative measures to tackle lung and neurological diseases as well.
The government is providing $10 million over three years to improve the respiratory health of Canadians and $15 million over four years to work closely with stakeholders on a national population study on neurological diseases. In addition, we continue our work on surveillance of physical activity and healthy eating trends and we are committed to meeting the healthy living targets for 2015 set through our collaborations with provincial and territorial ministers of health and ministers responsible for sport, physical activity and recreation.
By 2015, we aim to have a 20% increase in Canadians who make healthy food choices, a 20% increase in Canadians who participate in regular physical activity, a 20% increase in Canadians at normal body weight, an increase of seven percentage points of the proportion of children and youth between the ages of 5 to 19 who participate in 90 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily.
Another initiative to increase the physical activity of children and youth is the joint policy statement called “Intersectoral Action on Children and Youth Physical Activity”. This statement was signed by the ministers who are responsible for sport, physical activity and recreation. These ministers are collaborating with their health and education counterparts on this joint policy statement, demonstrating the commitment to see children and youth including physical activity in their daily lives.
I am confident that Canadians are familiar with our governments work on the children's fitness tax credit, Canada's physical activity guides and the Canada food guide.
Through Canada's economic action plan, $500 million was also allocated to create the regional infrastructure Canada program, supporting the construction and renewal of community recreational facilities across Canada. These facilities will reach Canadians in their communities.
Highlighted in budget 2010, the government has committed to give participaction $6 million over two years to promote healthier lifestyles for Canadians through physical activity and fitness.
Along similar lines of support has been the government's commitment to seniors through the new horizons for seniors program. This program funds non-profit organizations to ensure that seniors can benefit from and contribute to the quality of life in their communities through active living and participation in social activities.
Through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the government has provided $87 million in funding for obesity related research since 2000.
All these partnerships and collaborations help promote healthy living. Yet there is much more to do.
The will to make healthy living improvements is evident at all levels of government with the non-government, community and other stakeholder organizations.
Given that chronic diseases cause Canadians more than $40 billion each year in direct health costs and $70 billion every year in lost productivity, we must take further action now to relieve the burden. With our continued focus on healthy Canadians this government is on the right path.
Injury prevention is also an important aspect of a healthy lifestyle. We can all agree that injuries, unintentional and intentional, are an important health concern involving people of all ages, backgrounds and settings. Injuries are largely preventable.
Injury totals represent a significant economic and societal burden estimated to be greater than $19.8 billion per year. These numbers are staggering and the statistics speak for themselves. Unintentional and intentional injuries are the leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of one and forty-four. Injuries are the fifth leading cause of death for all Canadians.
Injury hospitalizations for 80% of seniors 65 and older are the result of unintentional falls. We know certain groups are at higher risk for injuries than others. These include younger adults, men, people living in lower income households, people with problems such as depression or substance abuse, those living in isolated communities and in particular our aboriginal peoples.
There is still much work to be done and our government has taken action. We are moving forward with our food and consumer safety action plan to modernize and strengthen product safety laws to protect Canadians from injuries resulting from dangerous consumer products.
We have already been working with a variety of partners, including provincial governments, non-governmental organizations, health professionals and their associations. It is these professionals who are important to getting both the injury prevention and the health promotion messages out to Canadians. They believe that more can be done to prevent injuries in Canada and we agree.
The Government of Canada is committed in partnership with all those involved in our health care system to lessen the numbers and impacts of injuries for all Canadians.
Our health affects every aspect of our lives from the personal to the professional. Clearly stated here today is the impact of focusing on healthy living and injury prevention, a focus which strives to ease the burden for all Canadians for now and for future generations.
I am confident that my constituents in Oshawa and, indeed, all Canadians would probably support this motion. Focusing on strategies for health living and injury prevention are clearly part of the health care solution.
With the Government of Canada investing significantly and working collaboratively, we are ensuring that we have another made in Canada success story for improving the health of all Canadians.