Health — Issue No. 2 — Thursday, March 30, 2006 (HTML)

2006 Legislative Session: Second Session, 38th Parliament
SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
MINUTES AND HANSARD

Unavoidably Absent: Michael Sather, MLA

1. As there was not yet a Chair elected to the Committee, the Clerk Assistant and Committee Clerk called the meeting to order at 12:11 p.m.

2. Resolved, that Ralph Sultan, MLA be appointed Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Health. (Dave S. Hayer, MLA)

3. Resolved, that David Cubberley, MLA be appointed Deputy Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Health. (Katrine Conroy, MLA)

4. The Committee reviewed its draft business plan and other related documents.

5. Resolved, that the Committee meet in-camera to review the proposed media consultant position. (Dave S. Hayer, MLA)

6. The Committee met in-camera from 12:49 p.m to 12:56 p.m.

7. Resolved, that the Committee approve and adopt the draft business plan and preliminary witness list. (Charlie Wyse, MLA)

8. Resolved, that the Committee do now adjourn. (Dave S. Hayer, MLA)

9. The Committee adjourned at 12:59 p.m.

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
HEALTH



CONTENTS

		Page

Election of Chair and Deputy Chair		7

Work of the Committee		7

Committee Meeting Schedule		11

Other Business		13

Chair:	* Ralph Sultan (West Vancouver–Capilano L)
Deputy Chair:	* David Cubberley (Saanich South NDP)
Members:	* Dave S. Hayer (Surrey-Tynehead L) * Daniel Jarvis (North Vancouver–Seymour L) * John Nuraney (Burnaby-Willingdon L) * Valerie Roddick (Delta South L) * Katherine Whittred (North Vancouver–Lonsdale L) * Katrine Conroy (West Kootenay–Boundary NDP) Michael Sather (Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows NDP) * Charlie Wyse (Cariboo South NDP) * denotes member present

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk Assistant and Committee Clerk): Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this first meeting of the Select Standing Committee on Health for the second session of this parliament.

As this is the first meeting in this session, there has not yet been a Chair or Deputy Chair elected to serve this committee. The first item of business on our agenda today will be the election of Chair. I hereby open the floor to nominations.

I will call for further nominations three times. Any further nominations? Any further nominations? Seeing no further nominations, Mr. Sultan, do you accept nomination?

D. Hayer: I thought he had the most experience on health care of all of us here. He will do a great job, I understand.

R. Sultan (Chair): I think the next order of business is the election of a Deputy Chair, so I will call for nominations for the position of Deputy Chair of this committee.

R. Sultan (Chair): Katrine has nominated and Charlie has seconded David Cubberley as Deputy Chair.

R. Sultan (Chair): Are there any other nominations for the position of Deputy Chair? I will ask two more times. Are there any other nominations for Deputy Chair? Any other nominations for Deputy Chair?

R. Sultan (Chair): Congratulations, Mr. Cubberley, Deputy Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Health of the British Columbia Legislature.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Committee Clerk): Before we begin the meeting, I've been asked to introduce the committee researcher, who will be well known to many of you, I'm sure. Jonathan Fershau has worked with our office for about three years now, and he has worked and served with a number of parliamentary committees. Most notably, he managed the Finance Committee's extensive consultation process during the budget consultation tour last fall, and I know he's looking forward to working with you on this committee. He has assisted us in preparing the documents, which have been distributed for this meeting.

In addition to Jonathan's services, we also have the assistance of other researchers in our research team, including Wynne MacAlpine, who has also worked in the past for the Health Committee and other committees as well.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Committee Clerk): The Chair has asked that we distribute three draft documents for your consideration today. We would certainly welcome any input and feedback on any aspect of these documents. As you can see, we have distributed a draft business plan, which gives, essentially, a high-level overview to the different key component parts of how we see the committee's work unfolding over the next few months.

We have also prepared a table — the second document — which is essentially a high-level overview of the key witnesses who we would suggest might be helpful to try and define many of the issues encompassed by the committee's terms of reference. This is not an exhaustive list, and again, we would welcome any suggestions that you might have for further witnesses. The proposed meetings times on this document are merely suggestions only, intended to help illustrate, I guess, the number of meetings that the committee might envision having over the next couple of months. Certainly, there will be further meetings scheduled beyond those outlined on this list — ones which would take us through additional witnesses and also the additional meetings that would be required to draft a report.

The final document, then, is the proposed consultant position. Again, we would welcome your comments on that, as the third and final document to be reviewed today.

R. Sultan (Chair): I would just make a few preliminary remarks and then proceed through the agenda. First of all, I would like to thank Committee Clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd and, shall we say, the deputy convener. I'm not quite sure what the legal status of David

Cubberley was in the interim, but he obviously was there as a very important person in the life of this committee and, in particular, the planning of the work of this committee.

Unfortunately, I became ill, and I stranded my two colleagues, who had to carry on in my absence partially and do some of the hard work of conceptualizing and planning the work of this committee. I thank them for their patience in waiting for the recovery of my health. I'm really looking forward to carrying on as your Chair.

I also look forward to the assistance of Jonathan, who is going to play a key role, particularly in writing the report of this committee. At least, that is our proposal, which the three of us agreed upon, and we would welcome any further comments from the committee as a whole. I suppose this might be viewed as a bit of a departure from the Health Committee of the previous Legislature headed by MLA Roddick, where the committee retained a consultant to actually do the writing of the report. But I'll get into the reasons for our view on that subject in a moment.

I wanted to urge the committee to view this assignment to examine the causes and cures of obesity among our children and youth in a bipartisan fashion. I'm sure, with the creativity and the talent assembled around this room on both sides, that we could find good reasons to blame one another for the sad state of affairs, I'm afraid, our children and youth have come into. But I would hope and ask my colleagues on the B.C. Liberal side of the House not to yield to their temptation to blame it all on the NDP, and I, in turn, would ask the NDP members not to blame it all on the B.C. Liberal policies and government.

We are here, after all, to come up with constructive solutions to the problem concerning our children, the families of this province and the future stamina and public health of our population.

R. Sultan (Chair): While I won't rule whacking one another out of order, I would hope that you would keep it to a minimum, as much fun as it might be.

The other point I wanted to make at the outset was to report to you some of our thinking — that is to say, David and Kate and I — as to the overriding strategy of this committee. Clearly, we are charged by the Legislature to examine the extent of and solutions to the problem of childhood obesity. That is our charge by the Legislature, and I would remind you that we must report in by November.

How can we do that? Well, there are lots of experts around who will tell us the extent of the problem and also tell us what we, perhaps, as a government and as a public body should be doing about it. But I think there was a strong view that there's no great scientific magic about what's going on out there. We will have that reported in due course to us.

The more important question is: what do we do about it? In particular, how does this committee, working through its advice to the Legislature, begin to help solve the problem? In many ways, one might consider this to be a communications issue or, perhaps, in the words of our Deputy Chair, a social marketing issue.

Viewed in that light, it seemed to us, if we were going to seek outside assistance…. And we are proposing to do so, with a media consultant. We view this committee as providing a platform for a communication message to all British Columbians — that being a very important part of the mandate of this committee. I hope that approach would meet with your approval, but we will discuss that.

That is about it, in terms of my own introductory remarks. I know the Deputy Chair didn't suggest to me that he had any compelling further messages he wanted to deliver, but I'll ask him one last time whether he wants to have the floor.

D. Cubberley (Deputy Chair): I'd just very briefly say that I have appreciated the opportunity to work with both the Clerk Assistant and the Chair of the committee to try and frame this thing.

I think that there has been an agreement that to be effective we need to focus on solutions and not simply to spend more time — which has been productively invested already in the prior committee — in mapping the scope of the problem. The challenge now is to find some way to become effective in the solutions department.

The only thing that I would want to say to the committee is that we are going to have a challenge, I think, in finding the people to come and address us who will be able to move beyond a reiteration of the scope of the problem and move into telling us about solutions that can work. Part of what we have to do, I think, is to find the way to leverage that discussion and not lapse into the other discussion.

We have three draft documents — and I underline draft — that have been prepared with considerable advice and input from the Deputy Chair and myself, but we must also acknowledge the very creative and strong leadership provided by the Committee Clerk and her staff in preparing these three documents.

They are (1) the draft business plan for the work of this committee; (2) a proposed schedule — a very preliminary schedule, but nevertheless, it's beginning to tie down dates and places and experts who may come and offer us testimony; and (3) a proposed position description for a media consultant, who may be retained by this committee. This proposed position description is intended to be of a type and style that could be virtually a request for proposal, circulated in the media advisory community.

Perhaps we could open the discussion to the committee as a whole by, first of all, examining the draft

C. Wyse: Having looked at this document, it makes sense to me to proceed with it. I have no contributions to make to it, except that I support the proposed list in front of us.

V. Roddick: I just have one suggestion. I notice that there are all sorts of people on the possible witness list, down in the timings of the meetings, etc., but I don't notice — other than myself as a member of this committee — anyone from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Seeing as how health depends on food, and good food, I think that it would be very wise and fortuitous to put someone down from the Ministry of Agriculture. I'd like to suggest — just off the top of my head — a fellow called Brent Warner, who is very well placed for putting this thing out into the general public and having ideas. I'd go very much along.

If we can actually come up with solutions, it would be really terrific — really terrific.

K. Conroy: One of the things, along the same line with witnesses, is that the Dietitians of B.C. aren't listed anywhere. The head of that group is Janice Macdonald. They're a group of all of the dietitians of B.C. that are represented from across the province. They annually put out a report on what we can do to correct the issues around dietary situations in the province, so I think they would be a very good group to bring forward and talk to us about positive solutions.

J. Nuraney: If I may suggest, I do not see any mention of the Legacy 2010 in this…. Did I miss it?

R. Sultan (Chair): If I may interject, I believe the Legacy 2010 is on the proposed schedule. The preliminary witness schedule doesn't correspond exactly to the other documents, but her name is included on page 5 of the preliminary witness list and preliminary meeting schedule.

D. Hayer: You guys have done a great job on this. Welcome back. It's good to see you healthy and see that our health care system does work. I remember you were sitting right in front of me when you left the House, and I realized later on that you can never tell with your health issues.

I just wanted to say one more thing on the witness list. Is this going to be open, so if we come up with some other names from different walks of life, and if people want to come make a presentation…? Or is it going to be sort of closed?

R. Sultan (Chair): I think we're very flexible, particularly at this stage but even later on. I don't think we are going to say: "Look, the witness list is frozen as of Wednesday, and that's it for the next three or four months." I think we're going to roll with the waves on this one.

K. Whittred: I just wanted to say that I think that the initial planning looks very encouraging. I would like to add my voice to a couple of speakers earlier. I would really hope that the committee, as we move on, moves in the direction of looking for action rather than simply more description of what the problem is. I really think that we are at a stage where most of us know what the problem is. I mean, it really is not rocket science. Therefore, I suggest that as we look at our witness lists and so on, we make sure that we do have a selection of witnesses who are actually involved with, if you like, the delivery of the product, not just describing the problem.

I wasn't sure, because I think I missed the organizational meeting in the fall when we…. We've got two things on our agenda today. One is a witness list, where we have a number of things outlined; another is a plan that appears to be a more action-oriented timetable — for example, encouraging physical activities in schools and communities, ninth witness session, tenth witness session. I'm not sure. Are these open sessions? Are we taking this to communities, or are they coming here? What is the plan?

The reason I'm asking that is: I'm not sure whether…. I mean it's one thing to have Dr. Ballem come and tell us — I know what Dr. Ballem is going to say — and quite another to have someone who actually works in a community setting describe to us what may in fact be an effective type of program to model.

R. Sultan (Chair): I think you're illustrating the fact that this is a partial presentation of possible experts and operators in the field, as it were.

Kate reminds me that the three of us had considerable discussion about other approaches, getting beyond, shall we say — I hate to use the word, but I will — the health bureaucrats. For example, we would perhaps get a representative of the Vancouver Whitecaps in here to talk about soccer and get the soccer moms to come and testify, and maybe even have some of these youth sports team representatives come and talk to how they have become involved in strenuous physical activity, and how others in their peer group have been discouraged or turned away.

I think some creativity — getting beyond the level of the experts and the bureaucrats — would be appropriate, in my personal view.

K. Whittred: That's precisely the point that I think I was trying to get to. I would hope that somewhere in

this work of the committee that we find time to hear from…. I would love to hear from the walking schoolbus people. I would like to know how that program works, and if it in fact is working. I would like to hear from a school that has a really good intramural program. I would like at the end of this to be able to go out…. So that in our report we've not only defined the problem, because I think most of us know that, but we're able to put forward some models that we have discovered. We can say to the province: "These are things that appear to be working in X community."

D. Cubberley (Deputy Chair): I would very much agree with the direction of those comments, and I would like to see us looking at the community-level initiatives, the school-level initiatives, where individuals are trying to make change and have some experience in doing that, as opposed to focusing on the university-level type of people or representatives of the bureaucracy, who are perhaps aware of the need for change or doing research on how it can take place but are not exposed that much to initiatives in the field.

I think we can try to tap that experience. There's quite a bit. I mean, there's the Way To Go program in this region, which I think is, again, partially funded out of ICBC; and the Safe Schools program, which is involved in retrofitting physical environments to make them more attractive and safe for walking to and from school and for walking while at school. Those kinds of programs are things that, I think, would be good to hear about. That may give us a basis for beginning to recommend some kinds of templates for programs to government.

I wanted to comment, as well, on the communicator, or the person that we might retain, but I think I should wait because the conversation is in another area right now.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Committee Clerk): Just briefly, I wanted to respond to Katherine's suggestions. One of the elements of the planning discussions thus far was to incorporate some model of a site visit to supplement the traditional committee meeting format. It was suggested that if members were aware of unique programs in their constituency or elsewhere in the province that might be of interest to the committee, perhaps we could invite some of the experts or key stakeholders to meetings within those school settings or other community environments where there could be an informal tour, for example, of the facility and some informal interchange with some of the young people who might be gathered in that area.

Although we haven't factored it in, this is a pretty traditional-looking meeting schedule now, primarily based out of Victoria. With your approval, we'd be happy to make any plans along those lines — if it appeals.

K. Conroy: I'm hoping that we can also think outside of the box and look at some of the alternate types of sports so that we can make sure that we're not just looking at the traditional sports. We're looking at things like skateboarding. We're looking at things that actually attract kids to get involved in sports. It's not just traditional types of sports — and usually the more expensive kinds of sports — but looking at sports that we can involve all kids in.

C. Wyse: The other point I'd like to add to our consideration here is to ensure that whatever we put together has solutions that run across the province — the different diversity that we have in the province and the different climates. Your observation that it's very much Victoria-based and so on. I don't take any exception to that, but at the same time, we need to recognize that climate differences and so on need to be taken into account in our solutions that we're putting forward.

J. Nuraney: While we're talking about the diversity of our geography, we may also want to look at the diversity of our demography to see if there are any ethnic problems that also emanate from different areas. We should consider looking at those as well.

R. Sultan (Chair): Yes, and in that regard, John, I'm glad you raised that point. We have already had built into the suggested list of witnesses a person who has specialized in the aboriginal health community. That name is Manon Beaudrie with the University of British Columbia — the Institute for Aboriginal Health. I think it goes far beyond that — to your point — and I think we should try and do that.

V. Roddick: I was just wondering. In today's world, with so many working parents, we've been concentrating on schools, but what about — I don't know if this is part of our mandate or not — day cares and preschools and kindergartens, that sort of aspect? That's where you get the really young people and start teaching them how to eat right and exercise and that sort of thing. Can we bring that into it as well?

R. Sultan (Chair): Could I ask Kate to comment on our mandate and the limitations to it?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Committee Clerk): The terms of reference issued by the House to the committee is replicated on page 1 of the business plan. Essentially — I'll just read it out — the committee "is empowered to examine, inquire into and make recommendations with respect to finding effective strategies to change behaviour and encourage children and youth to adopt lifelong health habits." Essentially, I think the terms of reference would support what the suggestion is. Certainly, it's always within the scope of authority of any committee to make full interpretation of any terms of

reference that are issued to it by the House. The House will define the scope of it, but within those terms of reference, it's really your mandate to define.

D. Cubberley (Deputy Chair): I would encourage a broad interpretation of mandate, and I think you have to, in any event, because children don't exist in a vacuum. They acquire their prompts from their association with their parents in the earliest going, so the habits and vulnerabilities that their parents have, because of their habits, are their initial frame of reference. That's what legitimates and says that this is good behaviour or that is bad behaviour.

The normalization of behaviour through the association with their parents and other adults is how they learn. That gets transposed into a defined setting called the school, where it's intense, and that may offset some of the problems.

It's obviously a venue of significance for us to look at schools, but I think we have to look at the role-modelling of parents. We have to contemplate whether you can change children's behaviour without influencing the behaviour of the adults who are their role models. Are we talking about: "Do as I say, not as I do"? It hasn't worked very effectively, in my experience as a parent.

D. Hayer: I was talking to my daughter, 16-year-old Katrina, and we were discussing health issues and exercise. She was saying: "You know, Dad, some of the kids are involved in sports, and their parents take them to different teams." My kids have done a lot of volunteer work, a lot of community work, and their sport part comes when they go to the rec centre, pay some money and participate in exercise, which is not too far from our home. There are many other kids going there.

I think that a lot of time, when the government talks about this, they say: "Let's subsidize the sports teams and other parts." They say: "Listen, why don't you also help the kids who go to these rec centres? They might not be in sports because their parents are too busy, or some other reason that they are not involved." So it's broader what we consider as people to be involved, to be active in the community, to stay healthy and fit. If later on we take a look at how to encourage people to participate more in different ways, we should find out how we can encourage them, to make it easier for them to participate at all those community centres, like the Fleetwood rec centre that we have in Surrey.

R. Sultan (Chair): I think we have time for one more comment on the overall business plan.

K. Whittred: Well, I was just reminded, as we were discussing here, that virtually all of our comments were directed, with the exception of Val and maybe one or two others, around exercise. The other side of this equation is food. I think that gets a little bit close to what David was saying about the role-modelling and the kinds of choices that families make.

A group that I would really like to hear from in the course of our witnesses are people who have decision-making around marketing of food to children. I guess that might include the guy that stocks the shelves in the supermarket, you know, and maybe the guy that does the marketing on TV and markets Cap'n Crunch to kids instead of cornflakes. I would really like to….

D. Cubberley (Deputy Chair): That power wall at the checkout with the candy bars — you know that one? Ever take a kid past that?

K. Whittred: That's right. I mean, I think that this is really getting…. When we start to maybe address some of those things, we're getting close to at least trying to address some of the really tough obstacles, I think, in terms of addressing this issue. It's one thing to talk about kids being active. The main reason that kids are obese is because they eat too much and they eat too much of the wrong thing.

R. Sultan (Chair): Could I suggest we turn to the second document, which is the proposed timetable. Again, this is a draft — very much open to comment. Who would like to comment on the proposed timetable? It actually is a combined witness list and preliminary schedule, but of course, we've indicated the flexibility on the witness side.

K. Conroy: I read in here somewhere that you were looking at Wednesday mornings in Victoria?

R. Sultan (Chair): Well, maybe I could ask the Clerk to explain the planning concept, the timetable concept.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Committee Clerk): This is essentially, as the Chair explained, a planning document. What we were trying to accomplish with this is to provide a snapshot of the kind of work that we could tackle, let's say, if we had a two- or three-hour meeting on a Wednesday morning. If that proved to be convenient to members, perhaps we could get in three witnesses, for example, in those time slots.

Really, the committee operates at your convenience. If members are not available Wednesday mornings, then we would seek your advice whether or not, for example, Friday meetings would work on occasion, or perhaps during the constituency weeks, even, in April, although those are coming up awfully quickly now. If there were any opportunities there….

Essentially, what we're looking at is a report that must be issued to the Legislature by November 30. Working back from that, in preliminary discussions we thought it might be prudent to begin drafting that report around September, October. As we move back from there, looking at the summer months, we were

hoping to cover off the bulk of consultation within the next few months — sometime before the end of June, ideally.

We're just seeking some preliminary guidance from all members now as to how you think — if we're aiming for a series of eight to 10 meetings, maybe more, maybe less — that might best work for all of you.

K. Conroy: Yeah. Friday mornings work best. I'm on the executive of the opposition, so we meet Wednesday mornings. I would never make a Wednesday morning meeting.

I know that all of us are not going to make every meeting. But also, if the committee could respect the people that live out far away from Victoria and Vancouver — Charlie and myself — and have travel difficulties…. If I don't leave by noon on Friday, I don't get home for the weekend. It's nice to get home.

J. Nuraney: I think, looking at the dates very quickly, there are a couple of dates that conflict with the other select standing committee meetings. Maybe the staff wants to keep that in mind, as well, so that there are no conflicts between the two select standing committee meetings.

I do support the Friday mornings. I think I would like the Friday mornings better than the Wednesdays, because on Wednesdays our caucus also has the outreach meetings here in Victoria. So Friday mornings, if the members feel comfortable, I certainly would like to see.

C. Wyse: Fridays would be my day in my constituency, and I need to get out of here by six in the morning on Friday to have any time in my riding. What I'm looking for is some type of a balance in the days that are in front of us, recognizing that not all of us are going to be satisfied. I have very limited time in my riding as it is, so I put that in front of the group for the juggling of the needs.

R. Sultan (Chair): A couple of suggestions from the Clerk would be that if more of the meetings were held in Vancouver, this might facilitate those persons who are travelling throughout the province — I guess in particular it's Charlie. Is that a big factor in your life?

R. Sultan (Chair): No — leaving from Vancouver, as opposed to Victoria, to get home.

R. Sultan (Chair): Another idea would be to try and schedule at least some of the meetings earlier in the day — 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesdays. Does that work?

D. Hayer: I would suggest maybe seven to nine, because we have some other Wednesday mornings booked from nine o'clock, 9:30 onward. Maybe 7:30 to 9:30 — that is not too early, but at the same time 7:30 is fairly good timing. Then we have the rest of our day to do other things.

D. Cubberley (Deputy Chair): Sorry, from my perspective, that's more difficult. I do have a young child, and I am the morning parent. That puts a burden on my wife if I do too much of that.

K. Conroy: I was just going to say that I think we need to just let the Chair and the assistant work this out — whichever meeting. Part of it will depend on which witnesses are attending. Some people will not be able to make it here at eight o'clock in the morning. I think we just need to have you set up a schedule, and whoever can make it will endeavour to be there.

R. Sultan (Chair): Yes. We will not be able to literally develop the schedule here as a committee, that's for sure. Dan, you have the final word on the scheduling.

D. Jarvis: I think that if we can't do it here on Wednesday mornings…. Although it's theoretically compulsory for us to attend our own outreach, I'd rather come to this.

D. Jarvis: Well, that's quite all right. Everyone knows how I feel about things, and I don't hesitate to say.

I think that this is more important, at this point. If it be us not having to go to our outreach compulsory meetings, which are perhaps a waste of time sometimes…. Nevertheless, I think it would probably be more preferable for us to have a two-day session at the very end of May or early June or something like that, because when you start adding up…. I'm sitting on four committees right now — no, I think it's five that I'm actually on — plus all your constituency work. Like on Fridays, that's my constituency…. When I get home, I have them lined up around 10:30 in the morning.

D. Jarvis: I just generally think that we should maybe have it in Vancouver if it's more convenient for Ms. Conroy and Mr. Wyse to travel into Vancouver rather than have to transfer over to Victoria and all the rest of it.

R. Sultan (Chair): If the committee will indulge the Deputy Chair and myself and the Clerk, we'll try and work this out. We will not be able, of course, to please everybody, but we'll do our best.

We have ten minutes remaining. I would suggest we would go in camera to discuss this proposed position description for a media consultant. I think that requires a vote?

R. Sultan (Chair): Could I ask for a motion on adoption of the first two documents?

R. Sultan (Chair): On the third item, do you wish to vote on that or to leave it to the Chair and Deputy Chair for further consultation and shaping?

R. Sultan (Chair): Okay, so we will come back to you on the media consultant issue, keeping in mind that time is a-flying and we would have to come back to you quite quickly. But we will commit to do that.

R. Sultan (Chair): We have one final item of business, and that is that Kate is going to describe a great opportunity to put our feet where our mouths are on the ActNow fun run. Kate, do you want to describe what we're talking about here?

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Committee Clerk): Yes, thank you. As the Chair and the Deputy Chair explained early on, we're looking for sort of a solutions-based approach to the work of the committee, and we'd like to encourage everyone to walk the talk.

In keeping with that, a convenient opportunity has come to our attention by way of a fun run, which is just behind the legislative building next Tuesday, April 4, from noon to 1 p.m. I understand the event, the fun run — which is actually coordinated by the government, so I will highlight that now for the consideration of all members of this all-party committee — comprises a 5K run or a 1.5K walk.

If any members are interested, we would certainly encourage you to let our office know. We can register any members who might be interested in participating in this event, and we'd like to also, if you agree, highlight the participation of the committee as a group. We can take some photos, for example, and use it as a sort of vehicle to launch the work of this committee.

R. Sultan (Chair): Everybody gets a free T-shirt. You'd be identified as a member of the Health Committee.

R. Sultan (Chair): This is purely voluntary, but I will certainly be there, and I recommend it.

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Committee Staff:	Jonathan Fershau (Committee Research Analyst)

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS (Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
HEALTH