CPAC, as my friend says. It is not too difficult to get them away from watching CPAC. That seems to be pretty easy. That is a pretty quick channel click it seems to me, as it is for many people, but, hopefully not too many at this very second, although we have to expect some of that too.
There are also plenty of statistics to back up what we know about obesity and they do not paint a very nice picture. However, I believe most of us are familiar with these very shocking statistics. Children age 2 to 17 have an obesity rate of 26% today. That is up from 15% in 1979. That is an enormous and scary increase. Youth age 12 to 17 have a much higher rate of obesity these days. First nations children and youth off reserve have a combined obesity rate of 41%. Sadly, the statistics in Nova Scotia are no better. Approximately one in three Nova Scotian children between the ages of 2 and 17 are overweight or obese. Of course, as recent studies have noted, this is tough on parents. Parents worry about this, as we should.
The studies indicate that approximately one-third of normal weight 20-year-olds will become overweight within eight years. If the trend continues, in 20 years we can expect 70% of 35 to 44-year-olds in Canada to be overweight or obese versus 57% who are currently overweight or obese. That is an enormous change and we should be concerned about it.
There are significant economic costs for Canada as a result of obesity. We ought to reflect on what this means for life expectancy. We have the government saying that it needs to increase the age for receiving the old age supplement because people will be living so much longer. That flies in the face of what we are talking about and what my hon. colleague from Ottawa—Orléans has said about this very issue. He has talked about the increase in diabetes, osteoarthritis, pancreatic cancer and a whole range of other ailments and diseases. I think he would agree with me that we can expect that all of this, along with the increases I have talked about that are foreseen in obesity, overall, at this point at least, will have, unfortunately, a negative impact on the life expectancy of Canadians.
That is something that surely the government ought not to be ignoring when it is looking at what it is doing, put aside the fact entirely that there is no basis for what it is doing anyway. The Parliamentary Budget Officer, the OECD and the government's own experts are saying that there is no need, that our old age security system is economically sustainable.
The government will use all kinds of inflated numbers ignoring the fact that inflation will change the value of our dollar. It kind of treats it as if a 2012 dollar will be the same as a 2032 dollar. We know, for example, that a 1980 dollar is not the same thing as a 2012 dollar.
Inflation changes what that means. One has to find a way to look at this and say what it will cost in today's dollars, which of course makes it a lot less dramatic than the picture the government paints.
In 2001 the direct and indirect costs associated with obesity were estimated at $4.3 billion, so this is a really big problem economically as well as health-wise and socially for our country.
I think we can all agree we need to build on and support existing initiatives. For example, there are provincial strategies such as the active kids, healthy kids and healthy eating strategy in Nova Scotia. We should be focusing on policies such as food and nutrition policies for public schools and regulated child care settings to make sure people are getting the nutrition they need.
We have all experienced the challenge of finding a place to eat a healthy meal out or buy a healthy snack. An awful lot of what we see offered in a lot of places is certainly not healthy and tends to help make us obese.
I think most of us have been guilty sometimes of not eating as well as we should. I sometimes say that I am on the Y diet: I only eat sweets on days that end in "y". I hope my wife is not listening, because she is really tired of that joke. It is a good thing I exercise a lot; otherwise, I would be feeling the effects of that diet. I try not to overdo it and I eat lots of vegetables too.
It is hard for a person with a nice-looking oatmeal chocolate chip cookie or brownie in front of them not to want to enjoy it and to choose instead to have a piece of celery or broccoli, as they ought to do. If we are talking about desserts, of course we they should choose some fruit. Most of us do not do enough of that. We need to make those choices more often and be good examples for our young people.
Marketing strategies and food companies have researched every aspect of how to entice adults and kids alike from biological, psychological and physiological perspectives, from all those levels that go deeper than just the basic conscious decision of whether to choose one thing or another and whether to indulge or resist. I do not blame companies for doing that, but we have to make difficult choices. It is hard, but I understand they are out to sell their products and are doing so in very clever ways. I think we have to be aware of those things. Perhaps the most important thing is understanding the impact of advertising on us and the kinds of messaging being used.
Nova Scotia families need resources and information in this fashion to provide their children and families with healthy meals and snacks and to make those right decisions.
It is not surprising that I support many of the measures proposed in this motion. We must encourage discussion to remedy the factors that contribute to obesity, such as the social and physical environment and the lack of physical activity.
We need to do more when it comes to the promotion of and access to nutritious food. We must encourage individuals and organizations to commit to participating in the promotion of a healthy weight by exercising. Frankly, I think it is important for MPs to be seen out getting exercise.
Of course, the federal government must continue discussions with provinces, stakeholders and individuals regarding childhood obesity and addressing factors leading to this epidemic.
While this motion does not call for any new action by the federal government, I hope it will nevertheless treat it seriously and move forward on issues such as having a sodium reduction plan and regulating trans fats and energy drinks, all of which the Conservative government has refused to act on.
While I would commend the hon. member for Ottawa—Orléans for bringing this motion forward, it is clear he has a lot work to do to convince his own colleagues of the merits of this motion and to convince them to take real action on what he is talking about. The government likes to talk the talk on childhood obesity and healthy living, but it refuses to walk the walk or perhaps run the run, if I may say so.
The Minister of Health refuses to regulate the amount of trans fats in foods despite the evidence showing that the voluntary system is not working, for example, the drug shortage reporting system. She has failed to move forward on a sodium reduction strategy, et cetera. There is quite a way to go.
I do thank my hon. colleague for bringing the motion forward.