Health committee  The problem with new year's resolutions is that people think they need to don spandex and head to the gym. Fewer than one third of Canadians will ever even step into a gym. Once they do step in--I don't know what the number is--seldom do they return to the gym, because it's daunt

Health committee  The other thing that ParticipACTION did this year was to deploy almost a million dollars of private sector funding--not federal moneys but private sector funding--back out to community-based organizations to help with that access issue. We wanted to make sure that Canadians, rur

Health committee  Yes, times 12, because I believe strongly that if we don't have an aligned vision and strategy in this country we will continue to go backwards and the return on investment will be very low. ParticipACTION partners with the Public Health Agency of Canada and Sport Canada at the

Health committee  Naturally.

Health committee  I believe strongly that the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2010 touched the heart and soul of every single Canadian in this country. They brought about the birth of Sports Day in Canada. We used them as the inspiration for Sports Day for September of 2010. Every day many Olymp

Health committee  I agree with you 100%, actually, and I would say that on obesity it's not melodrama or hyperbole: it's an economic matter, so it is a crisis as it relates to the economy. If you're thinking about individuals making the right choice, the best parallel situation would be smoking a

Health committee  Sure. I come from the business world, so I think of everything in terms of return on investment. That's how my brain works. The current economic realities are completely unsustainable. The stat that the Honourable Judy Sgro mentioned earlier was that within 11 years' time in Onta

Health committee  Sure. I'll come back to your question directly. I presented at my board the other day—and I have some really smart people on my board—and someone said, “Just do this.” I said, “Yes, we are doing that.” And he said that it would cost x millions of dollars, and I said that we don'

Health committee  As a society we're more sedentary, so there are many, many, factors at play. Certainly technology is one of them. Technology is not going to go away, by the way. As a society, you know, we even have a button to push for pepper; you don't even have to grind pepper any more. We're

Health committee  Just as Andrea mentioned that kids who are more physically active score better academically in math and reading, we know that in the workplace, if employees are more physically active, they're healthier, and productivity increases dramatically. That's indisputably supported by da

Health committee  I have three thoughts. First, we need the federal Minister of Health to have a passionate burning in her heart and a vision for what health care should be in this country, and it does need to be focused on prevention and on deploying federal dollars for prevention and not just on

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  They are at the table, so we've been creating this draft, Active Canada 20/20, and it has gone out for consultation. We've had opinions and feedback on this document from more than 800 people. It has been drafted and redrafted. I'm actually in Ottawa tomorrow for another round of

Health committee  Yes. I had this happen last year as well, and for me, I'm going slowly.

Health committee  Physical inactivity imposes substantial social costs in the form of increased hospital stays and the increased use of physician and nurse services. Some of these statistics will knock your socks off. Compared to an active person, an inactive person will spend 38% more days in