Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members, for the opportunity to speak with you today in support of Bill S-211, an act to establish a national day to promote health and fitness for all Canadians.

What makes me excited about national health and fitness day is that it is focused on solutions, not problems. Also, the agreement across the political spectrum in support of this proposal leads me to think that action in this vein is timely and would be well received. The headlines are clear about the downward trend in physical activity and sport participation, and the upward trend in overweight, obesity, and non-communicable chronic diseases.

To be sure, while dedicating one day a year to active living will not suddenly change this tide, it is an important symbolic step by Parliament. Such a declaration of all-party support can potentially motivate Canadians to take greater responsibility for their health and fitness in all aspects of their daily lives.

As executive director and CEO of Physical and Health Education Canada, I hear the reports from our members and supporters who are on the ground in classrooms, gymnasia, and after-school centres across this country. There is a multitude of pressures bearing down on children, youth, and their parents that make it difficult to achieve targets for physical activity. The reasons run the gamut from child overscheduling, to the built environment, to video and computer screen addiction, to parental anxiety.

At the same, when physical education and physical activity programs are working well, children and youth respond. They express interest in the activities they are doing, and they seek out new ways to have fun.

Physical and Health Education Canada is this country's national voice for physical and health educators. We speak to school administrators, teachers, government officials, parents, and other stakeholders, and they all recognize that there's a problem. Rates of physical activity are at the lowest in history and trending in the wrong direction. Rates of obesity and overweight children and youth today are on the rise. Moreover, with a huge emphasis on math, science, and computing, only a third of Canada's school kids are receiving regular physical education four to five times a week from a P.E. specialist.

We need to put in place the conditions that foster physical activity. This means fostering a culture of movement in our workplaces, schools, community settings, and homes. So much of the conversation around physical activity is focused on rising rates of obesity. While weight can have a serious and harmful effect on the body, this narrowing of the conversation loses sight of the myriad other benefits of physical activity. Bob has alluded to a few of them. Children and youth who are active have reduced social anxiety and improved self-confidence. They're less likely to smoke or abuse drugs and alcohol, and they are less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour. They are more focused and better prepared to learn, and have an improved self-image, especially among young women. Physical activity is an avenue to teach social responsibility and leadership.

In recognizing the interconnectedness between physical health and social, emotional, and intellectual well-being, a new term has emerged, “physical literacy”. A person who is physically literate possesses the basic movement skills that are the foundation of more complex activities. For example, someone who can kick or dribble can participate in activities like soccer or skating. Hopping or dodging might lead to track and field or dance. But it also applies more broadly. Physically literate people will be able to balance properly on a ladder, a skill that is essential for a roofer or a firefighter.

Physical literacy interventions are successful with children and youth because they foster intrinsic motivation, confidence, and competence along with fun. Once mastered, they hold huge potential to promote the adoption of lifelong healthy and virtuous behaviours. Because of this capacity to unlock motivation, physical literacy has increasingly featured as the DNA underlying new physical education curricula across Canada, and incidentally is the foundation block of the new Canadian sport policy. Physical literacy is the gateway to active participation, and more active children are healthier.

In 1970 federal leadership in the Canada fitness award program sought to create better attitudes towards personal fitness and to build skills and aptitudes useful beyond the formative years. While eventually discontinued, a renewed national effort based on current research and pedagogy is urgently required. We believe the federal government has the mandate and legitimacy to act once again in the interests of all young people throughout Canada.

MPs John Weston, Peter Stoffer, and Kirsty Duncan, and the sponsor of this bill in the Senate, Senator Nancy Greene Raine, have together recognized the inherent potential of national health and fitness day to act as a seed that may germinate into a broader movement, engaging and mobilizing Canadians to take responsibility for their health.

While culminating on the first Saturday of June, the entire week before could be positioned as a lead-up. This enables us to engage with schools and the education system to celebrate national health and fitness day.

In addition, as the 150th anniversary of Confederation approaches in 2017, Canada could make strategic investments in improving the physical activity of Canadians. A potential legacy of this celebration could be to position this country as making a concerted, proactive effort to address key determinants of health. For example, currently all of Canada's governments combined spend roughly $200 billion annually on health care, with only 2% of that sum devoted to health promotion, prevention, and physical activity initiatives.

Prevention is the single best medicine when it comes to improving the health of Canadians and cutting health care costs. As we know, the costs of physical inactivity, sedentary behaviour, and obesity are staggering. In 2001 the economic cost associated with physical inactivity was estimated at $5.3 billion, which included $1.6 billion in indirect health care expenditures and $3.7 billion in indirect costs. A new report by the McKinsey Global Institute, released just last week, estimated that the global cost of obesity has risen to $2 trillion annually, nearly as much as smoking or the combined impact of armed violence, war, and terrorism. We can begin to alleviate these costs by increasing investments in prevention from 2% to 3% of the national expenditure on health care.

The physical and health education sector applauds the efforts you are making to raise the profile of these issues. PHE Canada believes that every child deserves his or her own podium. Children who are physically active are better learners, lead more productive lives, and develop to be contributing members of society. The public, as our own opinion research confirms, overwhelmingly supports proactive initiatives in this area.

In closing, I would like to thank John Weston and Nancy Greene Raine for their efforts, reaffirm the value and importance of passing the national health and fitness day act, and urge the government to use it as a catalyst to enact other measures to get Canadians moving once again.

Thank you.

Transcript

Discussions (0)