Health — Issue No. 14 — Wednesday, October 18, 2006 (HTML)

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

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
HEALTH



CONTENTS

		Page

Presentations		240
	J. Morrison
	K. Fantham
	N. Kupchanko
	R. Stickel
	L. Ward
	L. Odendahl
	E. Palibroda
	J. Kouwenhoven
	T. Sloan
	S. Wallin
	N. Aulin
	A. Fell
	J. Leahy
	R. Darnall
	D. Lazaroff
	L. Locher
	A. Meintjes
	J. Garcia
	D. Malloy

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


Witnesses:	Nadine Aulin Ruth Ann Darnall (Save Our Northern Seniors Society) Kristy Fantham Ashley Fell Juliana Garcia Jeff Kouwenhoven Nikki Kupchanko Dillan Lazaroff Jean Leahy (Save Our Northern Seniors Society) Lynn Locher Dana Malloy Anel Meintjes Janelle Morrison Lauren Odendahl Emily Palibroda Ted Sloan Ryan Stickel Samantha Wallin Lindsay Ward

R. Sultan (Chair): Good morning, everyone. I'm Ralph Sultan. I'm the MLA, Member of the Legislative Assembly for West Vancouver–Capilano on the North Shore, opposite the city of Vancouver. I'm also the Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Health, which you see before you.

I would like to welcome everybody in the audience who's come out this morning. Thank you for taking the time. I know it's a very busy schedule that you're running at this fine institution, and it's taken a real effort. I know that you certainly have put in a real effort to prepare material for consideration by the committee.

I would particularly welcome the youth of North Peace Secondary School who are going to give us their thoughts on how we politicians can shape public policy to address this growing issue of childhood obesity. I've had a chance to meet your new principal, Daniel Vecchio, and I'd like to thank him for making the time and facilities available to us. He's explained that North Peace encompasses every student in school district 60 in grades 11 and 12.

I asked him: what is, perhaps, an earmark of the culture of this high school? He said that one thing stands out, and I would certainly agree with him. You have over 300 students in this school — about one-third of them, in fact — engaged in work experience and apprenticeship programs of one sort or another. As we southerners view the northeast and what's happening up here to the economy and the job climate, that certainly dovetails with our impressions of what we might find at an institution like this: a very career-oriented place, involved and engaged in the important economy that you operate up here.

We might also mention that we are grateful to Janelle Morrison, who has organized and, in a sense, produced this venture this morning. I'm told that Janelle, in keeping with the theme of this committee's examinations, is a marathon runner. I'm always impressed when I meet a marathon runner.

It's vitally important that we hear from young people on this issue. The policies that the government may eventually adopt can have a very important bearing on your lives — how you spend your money, how much exercise you get at school, the nature of the curriculum you face and what you will be able to consume in terms of food.

Last year this committee was charged by the Legislature to bring forward recommendations on how British Columbians should address the issue of childhood obesity and to provide some perspective on why that topic, of the thousands that they could have given us…. Why they chose that one is undoubtedly driven by the fact that more than a quarter of all British Columbians between two and 17 years old are either overweight or obese — a quarter of them.

Recently the provincial health officer released his annual report stating that each case of combined obesity, physical inactivity — and throw in smoking…. We are talking about adding billions of dollars every year to the cost of operating B.C.'s health care system. So we have a human dimension to address, from this committee's point of view, but we also have an important fiscal dimension, which all of us in the Legislature have to worry about in order to sustain a vibrant health care system.

To date, our consultations have focused on hearing from a series of experts in this field: doctors, nutritionists, food industry professionals and so on. However, other comments and submissions to our youth-oriented website, myhealthyspace.ca, have been received. We encourage everybody, particularly in that youth age bracket, to make either a written submission to the committee as a whole or perhaps to participate in the blog on the website.

The website also has other little features. There's kind of an amusing video and a questionnaire. We would ask for your participation in that website, myhealthyspace.ca. I think you'd enjoy logging onto it and taking a look at it.

As you're well aware from your social studies classes, parliamentary committees and politicians tend to be stuffy, rule-oriented, definitely not youth-friendly and, as has been pointed out to us vividly this morning, perhaps a little on the older side. I have to confess that it is refreshing to me, and a reminder of the many years that have passed since I was a parent, to re-engage with youth once more, read their blog comments and try and figure out what's going on out there in a generation removed from my own.

There's a very serious purpose here in trying to talk to the youth. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to dialogue with us through the website; by coming to these hearings; by writing to us; by talking to us informally, perhaps, if we have time after the break.

As you can see, we are recording and broadcasting this meeting live over the Internet. My words are being broadcast around the world through webcasting, if in fact anybody in South Africa is listening in. Who knows? For this reason, when you have something to say — your words are being broadcast through webcasting as well — we would ask you to wait to be recognized and then state your name. I think it's also helpful to the listeners to state what grade you're in.

If you do speak on the record, we would also ask you to check with Jonathan, who is sitting at that table at the back, to ensure that we've got your name spelled correctly. A written transcript will also be prepared documenting every word said at this meeting, posted on the committees website and ultimately published in Hansard, which becomes a permanent record of this parliament in Victoria.

You can show your grandchildren 35 years from now what you said before this committee on such-and-such a day so many years ago. So this has some historical dimension. I always get a charge out of that, at least. I don't know whether you folks would.

I'd like to now introduce the members of the committee. I would ask them to introduce themselves starting with Katherine over there.

K. Whittred: Good morning. I'm Katherine Whittred. I am the MLA for North Vancouver–Lonsdale. I've had a little bit of an opportunity to tour your school this morning, and I am so impressed. It is an amazing-looking facility with nice, wide-open spaces. It certainly gives one a very welcoming feeling. I'm really looking forward to your remarks this morning.

In my other life, before I became a legislator, I was a teacher, and I saw your eyes glaze over when Ralph said: "I know you've learned in social studies class about the committees." Well, you're getting firsthand experience here today, and I really hope that you all value your experience.

M. Sather: I'm Michael Sather, the MLA for Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows, which is just out of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley.

C. Wyse: I'm Charlie Wyse. I'm the MLA for Cariboo South, and I live in Williams Lake. Not only do I find the building welcoming; my welcome that I received from the students and the adults that I've met has been just tremendous. I thank you for all your efforts in preparing to share your thoughts with us today. I look forward to that.

V. Roddick: Good morning. I'm Valerie Roddick. I'm the MLA for Delta South, which is the Ladner-Tsawwassen area where you catch the ferries to Vancouver Island. I would like to thank all of you for putting this together this morning. It's really imperative.

We've been talking about age. We're not the ones that are going to be shouldering all of this, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how we can handle it — all of us together. You're going to be the ones making the decisions. So we're just delighted and really want to hear what you have to say.

R. Sultan (Chair): I would like to introduce, in absentia, two other members of the committee who will be joining us shortly.

First of all, Katrine Conroy, who is the MLA for West Kootenay–Boundary. West Kootenay–Boundary is that part of British Columbia which tucks up against the United States border, including the community of Creston, and a very wonderful part of the province it is. Katrine is meeting with some other people, who have issues they wanted to raise with her in the community, and will be joining us, I think, shortly.

Dave Hayer is the other MLA who will be flying in and perhaps landing about now at the airport. Dave Hayer is from one of the ridings in Surrey, a community which will soon be the largest city in British Columbia, believe it or not. Dave will be coming to join us as soon as he gets in from the airport.

Also joining us today is Kate Ryan-Lloyd, our Committee Clerk, on my left. Kate really runs the show in terms of keeping this committee on track and focused on our assignment. She's an indispensable part of the team, a permanent part of the legislative staff. Unlike us, she doesn't have to stand for re-election every four years.

We also have Jonathan Fershau with us, our research analyst, who's at the back and wearing the blue shirt. Sitting next to Jonathan is Carla Shore, who is our media liaison expert. Also joining us today are the staff of Hansard Services, Mike Leblond and Andrew Costa, who handle the computers and the sound systems and the broadcasting onto the Internet. They will also assist in preparing the written transcript, which will be preserved in the Legislature.

That's who we are. That's why we're here. I see we have a new batch of, I presume, students arriving. Welcome to this meeting of the select standing committee of the Legislature.

I might point out, as well, what might not be immediately obvious. This is a committee of the Legislature representing both principal parties represented in the Legislature, the New Democratic Party and the B.C. Liberal Party. This is a non-partisan, biparty effort to figure out what is good public policy for the province.

We're not here to try and gain political advantage over one another. We're here to try to help what is in the best interests of British Columbia and, in particular, the best interests of the generation you represent. As Val says, you're the folks who are going to have to live with the consequences of this public health problem — what some would call a public health crisis.

With that, I would like to turn the meeting over to the students of North Peace Secondary. I'm not quite sure of the sequence and program that you and your counsellor have set up, so I'll just turn it over to you. Thank you.

J. Morrison: Thank you for your introduction. North Peace Secondary School welcomes the Select Standing Committee on Health of the B.C. Legislature. I'd like to also thank these eight students in front of you here today because they have put up with my hounding, especially in the last week: "Come to Ms. Morrison's office a.s.a.p." They've put a lot of effort into making sure that this works out today.

Why are we here today? The all-party committee wants to hear from you, to learn how to change behaviours and to get children and youth to eat healthier, improve their health and increase their physical fitness.

Who will we hear from? We'll have eight North Peace students volunteering to raise their voices and express their opinions to the ministry. I would like again to thank these dedicated students for their efforts and assure them that the thoughts and feelings they express today will benefit the entire province of British Columbia.

What we'll be doing is having one student come up at a time. You'll just stand over to the right here. I'll go through the main points. You have a copy of the main points there. Just come up and read your write-up and maybe just give a brief introduction of your name and anything else you want to say about yourself that you think is relevant — and don't be so serious.

Kristy Fantham — I'd like to welcome Kristy to come up, please, to give the first little speech here.

K. Fantham: First of all, I'd like to thank you for coming. It means a lot to me, and I'm sure the students as well. My name is Kristy Fantham. I'm in grade 12.

Looking at the student population of kids today at North Peace, I find a higher percentage of them — or females — to be unnaturally obese. Walking through hallways, I can easily notice how unfit the clothes are on females, all because of the weight in the middle section, stomach and hips.

The B.C. government does not encourage students enough. I have never seen any school presentations on the consequences of non-active students or people today. The B.C. government does not enforce PE through every high school, which may be the only chance for some students to get exercise.

Sports are my passion. Every day I do something active, whether it's in PE class, soccer practice, mountain biking with friends or just working out 20 minutes before I go to bed. However, I realize not everybody shares the same passion as me in sports. I also realize that not everybody has to be on an elite sports team to get into shape.

Something I could do to improve my health. I'd say: "Say no to chocolates or sweets." I realize, however, that if I eat a little bit more, I have to work a little bit harder to take the pounds off. I don't starve myself — I would never do that — but I would go to the gym to take it off.

The personal experience that I could share with you was my one-year exchange to Germany. Before I left for Germany, I wasn't working out or playing sports on a regular basis. And yes, I ate a whole lot more.

I entered Germany finding out that my bigger meals were in the afternoon around two o'clock. My dinners were at 7 p.m., and they were a lot lighter. They were, like, a sandwich. It was very different. I joined a ladies soccer team. We trained three days a week and played soccer on the weekends. That was my daily routine, and it is still the best routine I apply today.

Eating right, doing something active at least three days a week, keeping yourself fit and feeling your best…. It's not about being skinny. However, students need to realize that if you eat McDonald's three days a week instead of a sandwich or an apple for lunch or any exercise, you will be putting on pounds — which is what is happening today, I realize.

N. Kupchanko: Hi. I'm Nikki Kupchanko. I'm in grade 11 here. I came to this school last year for grade 10 — one of the best choices I've made.

Within the past week I asked around. Everyone had a different opinion on youth and health, but it all linked back to one conclusion: that we're not all very healthy.

Personally, I agree. Teens today are not eating enough nutrients or getting enough exercise. In this day and age, kids have way too much money. The money leads to more eating out, video games and the ability to buy their way out of doing something they really don't want to do.

One thing the government did, possibly not intentionally, is helped with extending the time youth have their N and L driving sign, because it forces more kids to walk instead of drive.

Kids these days are their own people and dislike greatly being told what to do. They like to make their own choices about what to eat, and even if we cut off their supply, another way will be found. The best thing that anyone can do is educate us and encourage a healthy living style. We choose who we want to be, but sometimes we don't even know if that's the right way.

Possible ideas that I think might help increase health. Maybe making PE 11 mandatory here and increasing the vending machine prices slightly — not too much. That's pretty much all.

R. Stickel: Health in this day and age is a goal that many find hard to attain. Whether it's the media or just lack of knowledge about how to get healthy, far more people are overweight now than before. Obesity can lead to many damaging side effects such as diabetes and joint pains, plus can lead to many mentally damaging side effects such as lack of confidence and painful ridicule.

Sports are one of the best ways to get healthy. It's a fun way to meet friends and compete against other people. It is known that the people who play sports are generally more confident and in better shape than people who don't. But sports aren't the only way to do it. Walking instead of driving somewhere or even working are also great ways to stay healthy.

I was extremely happy when I learned that Fort St. John would be getting the new Enerplex, because not only would that open up a brand-new facility for a growing sport such as speed skating, but we can also have some more ice surfaces for hockey. It also opens up the old Kids Arena for things like indoor soccer and lacrosse, giving people more options.

In closing, I think that being healthy is a great way to live and is a goal that everyone should aim to attain.

L. Ward: My name is Lindsay Ward, and I'm in grade 10 here at North Peace. I don't believe that kids my age are very healthy, because they like to eat fast food a lot. It's an easy choice for them if their parents are going to pay for it. They don't generally have the consequences of having to pay for it and having to pay their bills and whatnot. They don't have to support themselves.

Just as an example, one of the kids in my morning classes, I notice, always has a pop drink with him in the morning. I don't think that's a very good choice on his part, but he just seems to be almost addicted to it. I just think that's almost ridiculous.

A lot of kids are also lazy. They just don't want to work out. They don't think that they have time to do it. They'd rather go hang out with friends or go to the party on Friday and just hang out and enjoy life while they can. Some kids don't even participate in gym, even though it is a required course. They just do what they can to get by and are fine with a "C" and just don't really care, almost.

I think a way to help that is by having programs after school that aren't really competitive but are actually more just to have fun, play different sports and help show people what they can do to help stay fit.

Just for an example, when I was in grade 7, there was a badminton program that my grade 7 teacher put on every Friday after school, which she would run. It would go until about five. A lot of people showed up. They enjoyed it greatly, and it helped keep people active. It was tough work. Then I'd go walk home, and I was so tired after that.

I think that another way to do it is to have credits or some kind of way to reward people for doing physical activity, because you can't always do it in the time that you have. When you have time set aside for it, it shows that you really do want to stay fit. Maybe there should be more scholarships for people who are athletic. I realize that there probably are already. I just haven't gone and looked around. But it's a good idea.

Another idea that I came up with is to have students make health goals at the start of the year. At the end of the year, they could see if they made their goals. If they did make their goals, maybe reward them some way for doing so.

I think the gym here would be much more useful if it were open after school hours, because at school you're probably in classes. If you don't have PE in grades 11 or 12, then you're not always staying active. Weekends are usually when people have the most time to do things. So I think it would benefit them greatly to have it open on the weekends.

L. Odendahl: My name is Lauren Odendahl. I'm in grade 12 at North Peace. As everybody has said, health in teens isn't very good. Around 60 percent of teens at North Peace are overweight and many face serious heart problems, diabetes and so on. There isn't enough physical activity in their daily routine — I'm pretty sure you guys are sick of hearing that one — and we're surrounded by unhealthy options.

For students who don't bring lunches to school because their parents don't make them, we don't have choices. We have the vending machines; we have the corner store, which is easy access; and we have burgers and fries in the cafeteria. The cafeteria does offer healthy options, but with the 300 or more students that eat here at school, they don't want to stand in line and wait for it. So they either go to the store or to the vending machines because those are easier to get to.

Many of us also smoke, do drugs, drink on weekends and party until we drop. All these factors will affect our future as it has my father's. He lives with diabetes now, and I see it every day of my life. It's slowly killing him, and because it's in my family — it's in his history — I have to watch it. I know there are other students in this school that have the same problem. It's not fun to see every day of your life, knowing what will happen if we don't change.

Some of the things we can do, as they said, are to offer exercise programs in the morning when students do have time, because most of us work after school or on weekends. I walk my dogs in the morning and try to swim when I have time, but we also need more programs to help students stop smoking or stop doing drugs or stop drinking or open other options so we don't have time to do that. That's all I've got to say.

E. Palibroda: Hi. My name is Emily. I'm in grade 12, and I've been running for, I'd say, nine years — since grade 4. I've really committed myself to running and know it will be my lifelong sport because I'm really passionate about it.

I used to love basketball, too, but in grade 9 I found it was too competitive, and it's not much fun being a benchwarmer — not at all. So I quit that. And that is a big problem, I find, because so many students don't want to play school sports because they're so competitive.

If we had recreational teams where people could go out and have fun playing sports and not be falling into the…. What's it called? I'd say: the stereotypical snobbish persona that comes with elite athlete athletics. I don't know if anyone realizes that. So many people wouldn't even bother going out to school team tryouts because of that. I don't think they even announced volleyball tryouts for girls at our school.

School sports are very limited. There is only a small portion of people who will actually go. I think it starts at a very young age, too, because my friend in grade 4 was cut from the volleyball team — in grade 4. That's a big, life-changing decision. She still wanted to play, so she came out to practices every day, but after being told she wasn't good enough, she just stopped. She could be really healthy right now, but now she just doesn't do any fitness or anything like that. It makes a really big difference.

We could encourage school sports at young ages. That would be very beneficial. The big problem with that, though, is that there aren't enough coaches. Coaches are volunteers, and so many people won't coach, because time is money — right? If we could maybe put some money into coaches, the schools would be able to hire coaches. That would be good.

J. Kouwenhoven: I'm Jeff Kouwenhoven. I'm in grade 12, and I don't like playing sports. I know for a fact that kids these days are not healthy. I see it in the hallways. Even the kids who are thin — where you can't notice that they're overweight or obese — are unhealthy, because they don't like playing sports on teams. They don't like going out and being competitive, because it's not their deal. They just don't like to do that.

I'm one of those people. I like to play fun sports with my friends — go in a field at some elementary school and run around, play tag or something like that. It's the sports idea some people just don't like. The same kids who are overweight and not eating healthy — doing anything like that — are not exercising either. They'll say they are because they go quadding or go sledding or go paintballing, but I think that those things are all either too fast paced or it's mostly the machine doing the work. I don't really do that stuff, so I'm not totally educated in sledding or quadding. Some people told me that if it falls on you, you have to lift it up.

Plus, I find that everything is a lot more convenient to the kids nowadays. They can just go to a vending machine and pick something up. They can go to the store and pick something up. They have the money to go buy the stuff, and the junk food is less expensive than the healthy food. You go to the cafeteria, where there have been crab cakes with potatoes and an awesome vegetable thing, and it's, like, $4.50. You can go to the burger stop that's in the cafeteria and buy a burger and fries for three bucks, and it's just as filling.

J. Kouwenhoven: Oh yeah. In grade 10 we're all supposed to participate in grade 10 PE, and I don't think that's enough. I find that PE is not as competitive as regular team sports. It's not like: "Oh, you suck, and you can't play." You get cut off the team if you can't play. You're in the class because you're in the class. If you're not good at something, then next day you're doing something different.

I think that the schools should either make PE mandatory or make it so it's a graduation requirement to have a certain amount, which is more than 80 hours of portfolio, of physical education. That's why people aren't doing something: because it's not mandatory. They don't feel pushed to do it. People want to graduate; they want to get out of school. If they don't have their limited amount of physical education, then they don't get out of school. They stay another year, or they drop out, and then they can't get into what they want to do.

J. Kouwenhoven: Oh, yeah. The last thing I have to speak about is that all the sports for the teams here in the school…. It all costs money to do stuff. You have to pay hundreds of dollars to be on a team. You need the gear. You need to pay the travel expenses and all that stuff. Some families don't have the money to do that. So the kids can't be on the team. Sure, there are different things in the school that can help pay for some of that stuff, but it's just….

If the schools had more, like everyone else is saying, intramural-type sports and stuff like that, after school or on weekends…. Have the gym open; just have fun maybe — like a football game outside in the springtime, a soccer game outside. Do something fun so that people actually feel like they're included. When you're excluded, it's just not fun to do that.

J. Morrison: Our last speaker today is Ted Sloan. Ted's kind of taken a different slant on the health aspect. Instead of talking about obesity so much, he's talking about something that is a little bit different. Still, it's something that I think the B.C. government should be hearing about from teens. It's very important.

T. Sloan: It's a very difficult thing to be the last one from my peers. I'm Ted. I'm in grade 12. When I got approached by Ms. Morrison, she said: "Well, what do you think? Are teens healthy?" Instantly, I didn't think about food health.

This is my whole spiel. We're in a very interesting situation with our youth and our health today. I've been asked to talk about normal health. Instantly, when someone says "health," you think obesity; you think physical weight. That's not what I would really like to talk about. I would like to discuss the unhealthy nature of teen sexuality.

If you look at the startling statistics taken from public health offices in Toronto, by the end of grade 11, about half of teenagers have had sex at least once. Granted, it's not taken in our province. But as a teen, I see the truth of that statement every day. Teenagers are simply oversexed. My fear is that teens don't know what hard work a baby is, and they dread finding the day when they have to.

Many of my peers depend on contraceptives, whether it be birth control, which can be taken for other uses…. But too many people take it for its original use. The morning-after pill is also another quick fix but, really, it's not. The number of teenage girls taking this pill is appalling.

I would personally like to see you guys go to a local hospital and ask how many girls take it and how many are repeat performers. I've done that, because I have connections with the local hospital. I not only go to it myself a lot of times, but I have people I know who work there. While I was not able to get exact numbers, they said it was simply too high.

Teens are not taking responsibility for their actions. They do have sex. But in the end, what is sex intended for? It's intended for having babies, which teens refuse to do. Providing teens with a quick remedy, a quick contraceptive, is not helping the problem of teen sexuality either. In fact, it's encouraging the teens to have sex. Why not? It's not like teens are going to face any consequences.

In this case the government has not even slightly punished teens for engaging in what society calls immoral behaviour. They have, in fact, provided a quick, easy fix that is accessible to all, which sadly has pushed teens in the other direction, telling them: "Yeah, go ahead. Have sex. We'll clean up after you."

Why are teens oversexed as well? The answer, apart from raging hormones, is the world that we live

in. You turn on the television. Shows that are sexual are the top shows. Grey's Anatomy, which has several sexual connotations at least once per episode, is a national favourite.

Advertising — which I'd like to pass around — that shows skin and sexual actions draws the most attention. If you look at those ads, one of them is Skechers, which is a very popular shoe brand, and the other is Abercrombie and Fitch. If you don't know what Abercrombie and Fitch is, I'd like you to see the second ad and tell me what they're advertising.

If you look at the ad campaign for Skechers, "We're putting the 's' back in 'action'" — since when was there an "s" in "action"? Every teenager here knows that if I want to get some action, it usually means I want to have sex or do sexual activity. Besides, I found those ads: (a) one on the Internet, but (b) one I can find in a daily magazine. I can pick up a magazine, and I will see that. The sad part is: that's not fazing me anymore. I'm not looking at that and getting red, because it's part of my life.

Now, I may rant and rave about this atrocity, but really, I will get nowhere. If I approach a major company and say, "Look. Excuse me. Could you stop your money-making formula to save your dignity," I'm going to be turned away. However, if you approach them and governments censor them, cannot governments be heard?

History has taught us again and again that governments that induce radical change initially face an extremely hard opposition. One can see the portfolio program, and perhaps when we started the country, the bilingual policy, but in the end, that opposition has fallen. Do we not still have an effective portfolio program? Do some Canadians really pride themselves on being diverse?

All I ask is that you look long and hard at what people are letting through to teens and then ask yourselves: "Can I fix this?" I don't want my friends getting pregnant at age 14, 15, 16 or before 20. I know my friends have dreams, and I know they're going to change the world, but they can't do it if they're caring for two.

That second ad I showed you, that Abercrombie and Fitch, is a clothing ad. I want to ask you: how can you see clothing in it?

J. Morrison: Again, I think it's a very important health issue for teenagers today, as well as the whole effect of the media and advertisement, which can also be related to how students are seeing themselves — self-image, and this kind of thing. Advertisements and what's being shown, what's being censored or not censored may be something to consider as well, I think — to extend that.

That's it for the student presentations. We've got some classes in here. I'm not sure if anyone has something to say afterwards, but I think what's going to happen now is a bit of an open dialogue, a discussion, between the two tables.

R. Sultan (Chair): Janelle Morrison, I think what you and your students have put on display for this committee this morning is an example of the wisdom of youth. I am really impressed, and I am sure that feeling is shared by my fellow committee members. Very, very well done and very thoughtful — hardly superficial, in fact pretty hard-hitting.

We do have a little bit of time — I'm not quite sure how long — to have questions from individual MLAs. I would like to suggest that we go back to the format of a speaking list, which I've kind of drifted away from, to my discredit, I suppose. We'll allow one question and one supplementary question.

D. Hayer: I'm impressed by what I'm hearing from students here and also in Vancouver and other towns. I think most of you understand. I was coming in on a flight this morning and talking to them on-screen and telling them we're on the committee. They said: "Do the students understand?" I said: "Yes, they do understand the problem."

My question's for Jeff. Many of the students who are not involved in a sports team — do you have some suggestions of how we can get them involved and living healthier, in more sports or more physical activity? I have two of my nieces who are really involved in many sports — in hockey and soccer. On the other hand, my kids were not really involved in them, and they were sort of going to the sports recreation centre after.

What suggestions do you have for the government for how we can get the kids who are not involved in sports teams more involved and exercising more in other programs?

J. Kouwenhoven: Well, I think that the reason why kids aren't involved is because they don't find it fun. If we make the activities more exciting to the kids, make them more something they want to do rather than something they have to do to feel accepted or something that they feel they're pressured into doing, then that's really the best I have for an answer there. Make it more fun, make it more inviting, and make the people happier, I guess.

D. Hayer: What about opening up a gymnasium after hours — after school and on the weekends? Also, if the rec centre opened up and gave them incentive to join, would that help?

J. Kouwenhoven: The kids also have to have initiative to do it. If they're always working or, say, living on their own or need money to pay for their vehicle or something, then they're not going to want to go do their physical activity if they can make money doing something else.

If we make more jobs open that are more physically demanding, then maybe some kids will be able to be more fit and more active.

C. Wyse: Once more I'd like to just acknowledge the thoughtfulness that has gone into your presentation.

Nikki, I have a question — possibly two — for you, to give you a bit of a heads-up. You talked about driving. If I recall correctly, you talked about maybe stu-

dents were driving too early and about the effect that had upon walking. Being from more of a rural type of area myself, students often need to get around by driving and need licences, maybe, to help on the ranch or farm or things of that nature.

With that sort of preamble, what I would like to ask you about is: how is Fort St. John as a community designed to get people moving? Or is it really car-focused? How would you go about changing that?

N. Kupchanko: I don't know. Here we've got it all in sort of an enclosed space. Nothing is too far away from anything. I've got my L, but my dad's always working, so I have no one to take me out driving. I just walk everywhere. I've got friends who need to get places, but they really don't want to walk because they just don't like the idea of walking. I'm like: "Well, I'll go walking with you so that you don't have to do it alone."

It's just nice to be in a place like this where you don't really have to depend on driving. Being down in Vancouver, where driving is definitely a benefit that would be nice, you can walk to the subway stations or anywhere else. I don't know.

L. Odendahl: Hi, my name is Lauren. Can I put my two cents in on that? My dad lives out of town. Like you said, there are a lot of kids out here who live in rural areas. A lot of us need our licences early because the dads are out in the oilfield and mom is in town working. We need ways to get home, or you can drive your little sister in to football practice or whatever.

Having our licences early is a good thing for some of us, because we do live out there. My dad lives out of town, and my mom is in town. Having a vehicle would be nice so that I can go and see him when it's just not convenient for him to drive in to town and pick me up.

C. Wyse: I'm going to break the rules here a little bit and ask my supplementary question over to Lauren. From your perspective, then, what else could be done to encourage young students to walk, given the situation that you've described? They need their licence, but we're now looking for ways to get them to increase exercising at the same time.

L. Odendahl: They could drive into town, and then if you had something in town where you could park your vehicle and then walk around town or whatever…. Honestly, yeah, you usually need your vehicle to get in and out of town or haul stuff to your parents or whatever.

In our community it's all based on that, because your parents are never home. When they work in the oilfield, they're gone from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m. It's insane. Maybe if there's somewhere to put your vehicles, you could just encourage people to park their vehicle.

There is vandalism in Fort St. John. If you leave your vehicle somewhere, it might get stolen, or it might get smashed. So if we had a safe place to leave our stuff….

C. Wyse: I think, Ralph, I'll talk with the students after to get more detail. Thanks.

C. Wyse: Ralph would like me to ask you — I can get away with this, you see — if you have your own car.

L. Odendahl: No, I don't. I only have my L. Like Nikki said, there isn't time to take me out driving. I'm looking into a driving school right now.

M. Sather: I can relate, Lauren, having grown up in the Peace River country myself, on a farm. It's interesting. It used to be that farmers or ranchers were pretty active, but now I find that my brother, who still farms up in the Peace country…. When he goes from the house to the shop, which is about 200 yards, he always takes the pickup truck or the quad. There's a lot of disincentive, I guess, or people get familiar with using a vehicle.

One thing, Kristy. I was kind of shocked that you said there were absolutely no programs in school on healthy living. I'm thinking back to when I was in school. We used to have a health class. It was pretty boring, as I recall. Are there no classes about healthy living of any sort, whether it's sex education or physical activity?

K. Fantham: We do have a class called CAPP class. It's more on preparing you for the future. However, ever since I've been in North Peace Secondary, we usually have presentations on drunk driving, drugs and what the effects are. But even now that overweight is a problem, I've never seen a presentation given to North Peace on what is going to happen to people in the future — what we're going to look like, how it is going to affect the children.

I see documentaries on TV on people in different countries and how the ladies are growing up with the children, and they are obese. However, in the school you don't see that at all. Who is going to watch documentaries — right? Honestly, it's a waste of time for a lot of people. It is. Who is going to watch the Discovery Channel? Those who are interested, and that's it.

M. Sather: Thanks. That speaks to a very important educational requirement or need that we have, then.

The other thing I wanted to ask about — I think it was Lindsay who brought it up — was credits for physical activity. That sounds like a promising potential. Several have mentioned that it's not a graduation requirement as such. I suppose those are related, or perhaps not entirely. Do you think that would be a viable idea? Do you really think it would fly in school? Are there any problems with having a credit program that you can see? Or do you think that's something we could move into fairly easily?

L. Ward: I think it wouldn't be too hard to do. There are already the 80 hours that they have to do for

the portfolio, so it does help kids actually think about what they're going to do for their portfolio so that they can graduate.

There is still the time after that. What if they go and work out every week, and they want to stay fit? And there is the time after that that they're spending. They don't really get rewarded for that, other than being healthy. They'd probably like to see it help their school.

E. Palibroda: People do get credits for some things. I know that people can get credits for dance, and people are on teams, like basketball. They can only get credits if they get a gold at provincials. Maybe there'd be some way to work around that so that if you could just show that you were into a sport, then you could get credits, instead of actually having to do really, really well in it.

I was interested. I think about four of you actually alluded to the sort of paradox, if you like, between elite athletics and activity. Certainly, there was an expression, I think, on the part of many of you that students are turned off of activity because of the competitive and elite nature of many team sports.

I wanted to know: in your school do you have a leadership class or a club? I mean, what kind of leadership could you as students take in terms of expanding your intramural program? Do you think that you, through your leadership class or whatever you have that falls into that category, could have a role to play in that?

K. Fantham: I'm actually in the leadership class. Right now we're not putting one on, but there are people and students who set up soccer intramurals at lunchtime. However, there is an interest, but there is not enough interest. People are interested in one particular sport, and if that sport doesn't show up on the paper for the intramurals at lunch, they won't go. It's difficult to involve everybody in a particular sport or sports.

K. Whittred: For my supplemental, then. That is a really interesting answer, because what you're sharing with us is that you, through your leadership class, have exactly the same problems that we have as a legislative committee. We're trying to find out: how do we motivate the public? What can we do to generate action on the part of individuals?

I guess my follow-up then is: if you, through your leadership, have difficulty generating interest, maybe you have to go back a step. What do you think you could do to actually try to create the need, if you like, in your school?

K. Fantham: I'm very interested because I know there are a lot of professional athletes in this world, and I feel that they have their own world. If we could bring them to our schools and have them involved and get the students involved…. Students like role models. People look up to hockey players; people look up to runners. If we could bring them to the school and let them hang out with students and show them what their life is and how it's benefited them, I think students would show an interest as well.

R. Sultan (Chair): Maybe you could state your name, so that we get the tape accurately recorded.

T. Sloan: I'm Ted Sloan. There's a club, also, that Mr. Vecchio has started. I haven't been able to attend any of the meetings, but a lot of the time, too, a lot of focusing doesn't go into sports or recreational activities. We do go for the betterment of the students, but as you can see, a lot of our…. We don't put enough emphasis on sports as a whole. There is soccer intramurals that I do announce at the end of the day, but there's not a lot of advertising for that sort of thing.

You never see around school: "Come join soccer." If we were able to add more emphasis and have a greater variety of things — different sports on different days — perhaps that would make it more of a fun atmosphere. A lot of people are saying: "Do sports because you're going to get fat." That's sending the students the other way. We all do not like to be commanded.

If you just say, "Okay, Monday everyone come play dodgeball, and Tuesday try soccer if you want to…." A lot of people just jump in there with the idea that they have to be there. It's kind of sneaky because we want them there, but at least make it appealing.

I absolutely suck at volleyball. I tried and failed miserably. But if you go there and, like Emily's idea, have a whole other recreational league where you're there to have fun, who cares if you win?

I'm part of the old timers hockey league, which is bizarre. They really emphasize that whether you win or lose the beverage at the end of the game tastes the same. Put more emphasis on having fun and not winning. Those who want to win create their own league; those who want to have fun create their league.

R. Sultan (Chair): Is there any other comment from the student panel on that same topic?

V. Roddick: A lot of the issues — this goes right along with Katherine's, I think — I've heard from not just this group but the other groups that have presented to us. What it means really is changing the blocks or the scheduling within the school system. This is where we need your help.

How can this be achieved in working with the teachers, working with the principal? You say you want PE in the school system. We went around the province. I did, as Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Health in 2001. We heard that time and time and time again at every place we went. We tried, and it

Every single one of you said we need more activities, more PE. This is the challenge. I'd really like to throw that back to your school. Maybe this is the way to do it, if I'm allowed to, Chair.

R. Sultan (Chair): Let me ask you a question though, Val. Why did it fail miserably?

V. Roddick: Because it didn't work in the system. You know, the blocks are set. I'm not a teacher, but Katherine, you can do that. What happened was: "Warren or Ryan can't take physics or English because we've got to change that block to put PE in it." There was a whole push-back. I don't know how the system works, but I know that what we did wrong, collectively as a government, was we told, instead of working with the system to try and make it work. That's what I'm saying to all of you.

How do we do that? The school system is so complicated now. You know, we all relate to reading, writing, arithmetic. Everybody marched into the same classroom, and then they left the classroom and marched into another one. It's not the blocks. It's not the times. Everything was really very simple, and your life isn't simple.

L. Odendahl: Yeah. I understand where you're coming from, because the reason I didn't take PE this year or last year is because I was taking chemistry and biology and stuff like that. But if you guys opened on Saturdays or Sundays, or whatever, and had a gym class then or something like that and gave us credits for it, it opens up the time. If we're not working, we have the weekend to do it. We can take the classes we need to graduate and go to the universities we want, and it gives us the time for the physical activity that we need.

V. Roddick: That leads me exactly into: how many kids today — a percentage of your high school — do you think actually have jobs? I've heard from other high school students in my own riding that they want the school system to go into a semester system, for instance — like Simon Fraser University. You can make your choices, because you want a job or to go to gym, or there's some crisis in your family, and they need you at home. If you can drop out for a bit, and then come back and pick up, it works for your lifestyle, because your lifestyles are totally different than when we grew up and when my children grew up.

L. Odendahl: A lot of us do have jobs on the weekends, but most of us only work eight hours so we either have that night or that morning where we have free time. Most people are recovering from hangovers, but…. If we had that option, it would be another one. I don't have time during the school day to take it, but if I had the option open on weekends, I would go to it. Because it's supervised, it's going to be fun. PE was one of the funnest classes I had — flat out. It really was.

J. Morrison: Just a note from our principal. I have mentioned that after a survey being done throughout the school — and as well as being a counsellor and getting to know what kind of hours and lifestyles the kids are working and how their lifestyle is out of school — 45 percent of our students in North Peace Secondary School are working between 25 and 40 hours a week — to give you an idea of what that number is.

K. Fantham: I'd just like to point out. I find I am a hard-working student. I am working my hardest to go to university, but I find nowadays it is so hard for students to compete to get into universities, to get to the goal that they want in life. Like, I want to become an Olympic soccer player, and I find that in order to do that, I have to go to university and find that perfect team to take me there so I can get chosen.

In order to get to university, you have to be a good, good student. For a lot of students here, they may be a good student, but they may not be good enough, and I find that a lot of students drop that opportunity because they can't compete. It is so difficult. If students are smart, they get the advantage of going to university and getting what they want and what they desire. But for some students like me…. I'm trying to get into UVic. I need a certain course in English, and I need a certain percentage in math in order to play soccer. I just find it very difficult.

V. Roddick: I hope you look carefully at the steps and the options that we've tried to put out there for that very reason. It might hold you back a bit, and I know that's really difficult in sports because age means a huge thing. So I do understand where you're coming from, but on the other hand, we are trying as a government to give all of you students more options as to where you can go and how you can build up if you need to attend a really high-level university.

K. Fantham: Yeah. I was just saying that maybe students need more options or more time to prepare themselves or have the chance to get the grades they need. I find that our schedule is so tight. We need money. We need jobs. We need school. It's almost like we don't have a life, it is so….

J. Kouwenhoven: I just have a suggestion of what could be done in schools, because I have a very hands-on socials class. You actually go out and do things in the class. Maybe if teachers could somehow incorporate a physical activity into it. Like physics class, they

can go out and maybe do some kind of physical activity for a velocity unit or something like that.

In my comparative civilization we're going to go hike the…. We went to the old fort. We went and hiked the hill. We were there for the whole class. We went and had fun. We had some physical activity. If the teachers could somehow make the class creative, somehow incorporate physical activity…. It's probably going to be harder in some classes, and I'm not saying all the classes should do it or can even do it, but it's just a suggestion.

R. Sultan (Chair): I'm informed the bell will ring in about five minutes. We have not yet had a chance for Katrine to pose her questions, and it would be nice if we had a couple of minutes, if possible, just to hear from one or two of the other students in the audience.

K. Conroy: Okay, I'll be quick. Thank you. Great presentations. Really good information. I just wanted to clarify.

Ryan, the new Enerplex — is that going to have alternative sports opportunities? Is there much opportunity here for skateboarding and rock climbing — things that aren't your more traditional sports?

R. Stickel: For skateboarding, I know they have a skate park over by the rec centre, but nothing for rock climbing. They have a bike track. It would open up more options. We don't have a lacrosse league, and there are lots of people who are interested in that sort of thing. It would open that for them. Indoor soccer is pretty big. It'll open up a facility for them to have a main area to go to. Then, the speed skating club is growing huge. So it's good to get them…. It will have more area for people involved in the sports.

My other supplemental is going to go to Ted, because you're the first person that's raised the issue of sexuality around health. It's a really good wake-up call for us because it hasn't come up yet, and it's a really important one. I'm just wondering…. One of the things you said yourself is that you don't want people — I don't know what you said — bossing people around. I've had teenage children. They're grown up now, but if you tell them, "Don't go and do that," they think: "Okay, I'm going to go do it because mom said not to."

What can we do to help students to become more responsible? What can we do so that you as students…? We can't tell you, "Don't go have sex," because then you'll just say: "To heck with you, we're going to go have sex." I think we need to work with students. What can we do? Is it more peer counselling in the school systems, or what can we do to help you guys create more responsible sexual behaviour?

T. Sloan: There are a few things. You could be really harsh. My sister is a nurse. I said: "Oh, what do you think about it?" She said: "Well, don't give kids the morning-after pill." I just kind of looked at her.

There's a great program here. One of my drama teachers is also the family studies…. They carry around a baby for a day. I believe that's the class. I don't know.

And there's the course where the babies are interactive, but you have to have a key. Perhaps the baby cries at a certain moment, and you have to figure out why it's crying. You either put the key in for food — maybe he doesn't like that and screams at you some more or….

So it really teaches you what it's like to have a baby. You know, my grade 7 teacher, who was very bizarre but had all right teaching methods, had the boys and the girls walk around with a 20-pound knapsack around their stomach for a day, so we knew what it was like to be pregnant. It's very effective.

It's opening up that option to every student, because in this school, we do have to take a mandatory portfolio class. Also, in grades 10, 9 and 8, you have to take a CAPP class. It's a very expensive option, but we're looking at expensive options if we don't do anything about it. Maybe subject students to having to care for — not a live baby, because that would have too bad of a consequence — those interactive ones, because it really does teach us.

In the advertising thing, censorship is…. Again, there is the freedom of speech, but with great freedom comes great responsibility. If we're allowing this sort of thing to jump into students' minds, why shouldn't we work with advertising to try and just tone it down a bit? I'm a great hypocrite. I love some of the products that I saw, but I see no point in having to display skin as something to sell.

I think that putting more emphasis on family life and what it's really like to have a baby is needed. We need more focus in portfolio or something. Maybe give a week, and each student has to care for something for a week, and see how they do. The teacher can read how well the students have done it.

Even if you don't take it all that seriously, it does give you a little bit of an opening at least to tell you that, yeah, okay, it's not easy taking care of a baby. That way, making students take responsibility a little bit earlier and showing them, giving them, a taste of what it's like to have a kid is a great option instead of giving them the whole sandwich and saying: "Deal with it."

R. Sultan (Chair): I think we have made the full round of our MLA panel. I was hoping to have time for one or two comments from the floor.

L. Ward: Awesome. I'm Lindsay, and I just wanted to add on what Kristy was saying about university and whatnot.

I think that since we have to save money to go to university — because it's so expensive now — we have to have jobs, and we don't have time to do other things. We have to keep saving our money, and hope that our parents are also saving money for us and try to make sure that we have enough money. I don't want to be paying student fees all my life.

R. Sultan (Chair): Thank you. Did somebody in the audience really want to pose a comment? I missed it. There's a hand up here.

A Voice: One of the nice things about having the principal here — you can get away with this. We can always blame him, I guess.

R. Sultan (Chair): Okay. Maybe we have time just for two comments from the students in the audience, and then I think we have probably run out of time.

S. Wallin: I'm Samantha Wallin. I'm in grade 12, and I would just like to say I'm not from Fort St. John. Actually, I am from Salmon Arm, and we did a whole bunch of health stuff. I've been through this a hundred times once before in seminars. I've talked to school boards. We did big presentations. We changed the whole school into a health school, and it still didn't work. It actually pissed students off a lot more, pardon my language. All of our vending machines were so highly priced, and it wasn't even good food so most kids didn't eat. They got sicker, because they didn't want that kind of food.

She said price the vending machines higher or change the vending machines. It doesn't really work to a good advantage. I mean we bought juice. We bought what we had to buy because we were hungry, but we were kind of forced to eat what was there. They changed it on us without any consent.

Ted's suggestion on sex… Some of us are sexually active. Some people — that's all the exercise they're getting actually. Believe me.

Don't discourage…. I wouldn't go to a condom company and say: "Okay, stop selling your products so our children stop having sex…." They'd have sex unprotected if there wasn't protection anyway. So really, you're not stopping much.

N. Aulin: I'm Nadine Aulin. I think a lot of the problem is that we have so little time to do anything. We've got school, we've got work, and we have no time. That's the problem. We start to stress because we want to get into university, and stress, a lot of the time, leads to eating. We don't have anything set up to help out students who are starting to stress or who have no time to do anything and then are bored and are eating. I think a lot of the obesity problem is that schools aren't going out of their way to help students.

We used to have a peer counselling program, but we don't need one. That helps a lot of students out in not feeling so stressed or depressed or anything like that. A lot of depression, stress and boredom lead to eating, and we're not doing anything to help students. We're trying to enforce physical activity, but enforcing physical activity is going to make students who aren't active feel bad about themselves.

We look at the media, and they're so reliant on: we have to look good; we have to look great. That's either going to make students go, "Oh, I need to work at looking like this," or that's going to make some of us go: "Oh, well, crap. I don't look like that, so I'm going to eat."

I think our schools need to focus more on hitting on students emotionally, not physically — not like: "Go work out; go do gym." That's not doing much for us because some students are just like, "I don't want to do gym. I don't care," or: "I feel bad about this." We need to emphasize more how students feel.

R. Sultan (Chair): You're going to have to help us in terms of timing. Ten o'clock is the absolute drop-dead time, I'm told. Is that true? If so, perhaps as our panel of students have to leave right now…. Or do we have time for another couple of questions from the floor?

A. Fell: I'm Ashley Fell. I don't know how relevant this is, but I think weekend gym is a good idea. Having a job is necessary, but whenever I ask for less hours, the least I can get is 22. If they schedule you for that, you can't just keep calling in sick. That makes you look like a bad worker.

In the first two weeks of school, I had 39 hours each week. I told them I couldn't work that, but they couldn't change the schedule for, like, three weeks. I really would like the weekend programming stuff, but there should be some kind of penalty for stores that are making students work more than 20 hours a week. You just have to call in sick, and then that makes you feel bad about yourself. I don't know. I think that needs to be dealt with too.

R. Sultan (Chair): Any other students? We will have time for the non-students after the students get back to PE or whatever. Any other students in the audience who want to make a comment?

E. Palibroda: One thing is…. PE — the last time you have to take it is in grade 10. Maybe if in grade 10 PE they taught you

less about skills but more about how to stay healthy your whole life — like how to continue through with physical activity….

R. Sultan (Chair): I would like to thank Ted, Kristy, Nikki, Emily, Lindsay, Jeff, Ryan and Lauren for sharing a great deal of wisdom with us this morning. It's not common, I suppose, in some circles to associate wisdom with youth, but I think you've given us some very practical, useful and helpful advice this morning. I think we all thank you for that.

I would also like to thank, again, Janelle Morrison for having helped put all of this together. It has obviously taken a huge effort on the part of this institution to put on this portion of our consultation with the people here in Fort St. John, so we thank you again for that.

R. Sultan (Chair): We are now moving to the second phase of our morning consultation as the Select Standing Committee on Health. Having heard from the students, we are now going to hear from other community organizations and citizens of Fort St. John.

We have four presenters this morning. I'll just list their names so they can be aware of where they stand in the lineup.

We're going to begin with the SONS organization, Jean Leahy and Ruth Ann Darnall; followed by Dillan Lazaroff from the Duncan Cran Elementary School; Lynn Locher from Success By 6; and ending with a presentation by Anel Meintjes, who will talk about the issue of childhood obesity as he views it.

We are targeted to complete our consultation here by 11 o'clock, so we'll have to move these presentations right along and ask our committee members to keep their questions very focused.

We will begin by calling on Jean Leahy and Ruth Ann Darnall of the SONS organization.

J. Leahy: Good morning. First of all, I should tell you that we didn't know until this morning that the focus was more on youth. So I guess from our point of view, it depends how youthful you think some of the seniors are. You know, you start out at 50. Then you go to 100, and there's a little difference, but there are some similar problems. I'll talk a bit about that. Then we do have the official presentation that we prepared before last night, needless to say.

R. Sultan (Chair): We are delighted to hear from the seniors. We know they bring a great deal of experience to the table, and that we can learn a lot about the health issue generally facing our society and this government. Welcome.

J. Leahy: Thank you. We learned a lot this morning from youth — wishing we were again.

We do have several seniors organizations. One here is Seniors Citizens Association, who have a community hall. They meet twice a week. They floor curl; they carpet bowl — table tennis, pool. Then they enter into the Seniors Games competitions, as probably many of you are aware. But those, needless to say, are some of the younger seniors. There is a senior curling club and a senior bowling club, but there again it's for the beginning seniors, more or less.

Walking. We have summer walking trails and opportunities but not in the winter. It's not safe to walk in the winter because of the ice and the snow. Last winter was very, very bad. So some people go to the malls and walk. They have 20 minutes or half an hour at the mall. As you know, walking on cement is not the best, but at least it does give them some exercise.

Exercise at the care home is almost nonexistent. It would be very important to have some exercise there to keep people on their feet because the longer you sit, the less you're going to get up.

That pertains to the apartment buildings for seniors as well. There's very little activity arranged. In fact, the newest apartment building for seniors, which is Heritage Manor — it has 35 units, so up to 70 people there — has absolutely none. So if they're not able to go to some of the other facilities, they don't get any exercise. There will be repercussions down the road for that. They'll be in the care home sooner.

When it comes to food…. We have a big issue with food because food in the hospital and in the care home is thermalized — frozen foods reheated. I personally attend the monthly resident family council meetings at the care home. Without exception, every meeting there is a complaint about food.

We keep being assured by the dietitian that frozen vegetables are more nutritious than fresh vegetables. Well, tell that to these people that lived on the farm and raised their own vegetables and know what vegetables should taste like.

While it might be true, it also depends on when the vegetables are frozen. Are they being frozen when they're picked at prime time? If you're going to get seed peas as frozen vegetables, they're not very appetizing. They're frozen beans with hair in it. You know how long they were in the garden before they were frozen.

It's only nutritious if people eat it, and they don't eat it. They just throw it out. So we have people that get fat at the care home from eating pasta, or they get thin. They are not getting the nutrition that they need. We know that, and they know it.

It is a big issue. Ruth Ann delivers Meals on Wheels, so I should let her have a word here.

R. Darnall: Well, occasionally the food looks really good, but quite often it's not very good. I guess it just depends on the day and what they're cooking. Those people that get Meals on Wheels have no other options either because quite a number of them live in Heritage

Manor in the senior apartments, and they aren't able on their own to cook their own meals.

J. Leahy: She's being kind, actually. Some of them look terrible and taste terrible.

I'll just go into our submission, which is mainly about…. We have a society, most recently formed about a year and a half ago, and we have 110 members. Nearly every member has had some experience with a family member in care, or is in care now or was in care. So we've all had experience with the care system.

Our main purpose is to try and get more long-term care beds in the north Peace, to pursue all levels of support for seniors — like assisted living, intermediate, extended, and so on and so on — and to raise the awareness that our north Peace community is growing, and that we will continue to need more beds, not fewer. We advocate for members who are sent to other facilities by trying to get our beds increased here. People do like to stay in their own community. We point out that today we have anywhere from four to 14 alternate-level-of-care patients in our 29 acute care beds.

Our ICU was closed, due to a shortage of staff, as recently as last weekend. In 2004 we had a 95-care-bed facility, but with renovations that have taken place since that time, we now have an 85-bed facility.

The issues that we deal with are varied and brought forward by numerous people in the community as well as our members. Communication concerns arise there because not everybody gets the same information when they're discharged. Not everybody gets an offer of help when they're discharged, and that certainly creates problems.

Staffing shortages. We point out one incident in particular. When our ICU was closed and a lady had to have surgery — no ICU in Fort St. John — she was transported by ambulance to Dawson Creek ICU. Then after two days she was sent back to Fort St. John, at which time she took a turn for the worse and was sent back to Dawson Creek and died in Dawson Creek.

It doesn't seem to register on the people that make these decisions that being transported in an ambulance is not fun. It takes its toll on people who are not well.

Home support. We are very short of home care workers. We appreciate the work that's being done by these people. They do an excellent job, and we feel that their work is undervalued.

New approaches are needed to recruit new home support workers. At the present time it's usually the college in Dawson Creek that puts on the program to train home support, which means that the people from here have to pay for their transportation and pay for their course, then come back with their certificate and be hired part-time. They don't want part-time work; they want full-time work. If we can't give them full-time work, the oil patch can. They are now first-aid attendants, and they make good money.

There are some inequities in the system that we would like to mention, and physiotherapy is one. We have to go to Dawson Creek for orthopedic surgery, and I can personally testify to that. I have a new knee. After your surgery in Dawson Creek, as long as you're there, you get free physiotherapy, or you can come back to Fort St. John and drive to Dawson Creek, but you know, if you have a new knee, you can't get in your car. The physiotherapy is at a private clinic here in Fort St. John. It's excellent therapy, and I'm not complaining about their therapy, but it costs me $550 for therapy.

We feel physio is essential for good recovery. If people don't recover properly, they're going to have other trouble down the road that will cost more. What's irritating more than anything is to learn that our friends who moved to Victoria and had knee surgery and orthopedic surgery of other kinds managed two free physiotherapy sessions per week for six months — free. That is a huge inequity.

One we're really puzzled about is that in Fort St. John, home care workers are paid one-way travel; in Dawson Creek, they're paid both ways. Personally, I don't understand that. I always thought they worked under the same contract.

Funding. A study that was done by Lexicana Consulting in 2000 revealed that on a per-capita basis, Peace-Liard received $641, while the B.C. average was $1,096. I expect some of that is because of mental health, because we have very few mental health services here compared to other communities.

Affordable housing. We are very short of affordable housing. It appears to us that B.C. Housing, which did have the mandate to build social housing, is now building assisted-living units. In the last four years, here at any rate, there has been no social housing built. We agree that it's not the total responsibility of government to supply housing, and that there needs to be community support and participation.

It's very difficult here because it's an oil patch economy. Everybody is out to make money. The developers are building houses as fast as they can and for as much money as they can. A good number of people who are building houses today can make an additional $100,000 in six months by building it and then turning around and selling it. That's what the developers do. They're not going to build not-for-profit housing — that's for sure.

The number of people who move into the Peace increases daily, and as a matter of fact, now that the winter months are here and the patch will be picking up, it'll probably be close to double. Fort Nelson is even worse; it does double.

The other thing we have to consider is that there are a number of work camps. In Fort St. John and Fort Nelson there are probably 8,000 workers in camps. If there are accidents, they use our facilities. That is a big concern, because if there was a huge accident near some of these campsites or even in our local OSB plant in Canfor, there would not be room in the hospital for these people.

We did get information last week from the Select Standing Committee on Finance about a new housing proposal for building social housing, and the rental

subsidies and so on. I don't know how that'll help us here because right now there's nothing to rent.

We have presented our current concerns to several committees. We meet with Northern Health regularly. There are some plans available now to try and expand more long-term care beds at the care centre. However, it means buying property from another society. The appraisal that came in for that property is very high, so I'm not sure what's going to happen. If they have to look for a new site, I know that means a delay, and it just means that our people will be going down to Pouce Coupe for an extended length of time.

We have always had to go to Pouce Coupe because we never did have enough beds here. For a time it was very, very miserable because there was a 30-day rule. You spent 30 days in the hospital here, 30 days at Pouce, and if you were still alive, you came back for 30 days, and you could go back another 30 days. That rule, thank heavens, has been changed. You now are sent to Pouce Coupe, and you stay there until there is a room available at the care centre.

There is an assisted-living unit being built here, which we're very grateful for. It's a 24 unit, probably completed early spring. But we want to point out that assisted living is not long-term care. It's obvious to us that when people talk about assisted living as being part of the 5,000 beds, it isn't. You have to be pretty capable in assisted living. You get some home support. You get somebody giving you medicine, and there are two meals a day, but you've got to be able to get out of bed and do things for yourself.

We just point out that we need more long-term care beds. Seniors do want to stay in their homes — I shouldn't say all of them do, but a good majority of them do — but they can't stay there without help, and when we haven't got enough home support, it's not helpful.

The other area is home support. There's a mileage cutoff for rural areas. I don't know what that is. It has been very vague. We haven't really been able to find out. But it means that if you're too far out, you don't get home care. So what do you do? You have to move to town. Where do you move? That puts the pressure on the long-term care facilities. That's where they think they should be.

We don't have enough people to do long-term care assessments, and we need more respite rooms — for single people as well as seniors because this is an accident-prone community. They have to go to their care home because there's nothing available for younger-age people with disabilities. And the affordable housing.

R. Darnall: I do sympathize with the youth, because already they're feeling depressed and stressed. How are they going to even live to be seniors if it's so stressed for them now? So I hope you come up with some answers for them.

R. Sultan (Chair): Jean and Ruth Ann, your presentation is very comprehensive and raises many important questions for this committee. It perhaps falls more neatly into the Premier's Conversation on Health that he launched about two weeks ago through the means of the Internet, through public meetings, through submissions to committees such as your own, through the 1-800 line that has been created, etc. There are six or seven different channels of communication that the Premier has set up to obtain feedback on the issues and strains — and there certainly are more than a few strains in the current health system — and what citizens think should be done about it. So with your permission, we will consider your submission as a prime candidate as input to the Premier's Conversation on Health, and we would forward it to him.

Given the fact that we're a little bit off topic with your presentation, however relevant it is to the general community health of British Columbia, I am going to forgo a question period, because we have a limited amount of time left and we have three other presentations. So we would thank you for appearing before the committee this morning, and we will move on to the second presentation.

Oh, and we have a fourth name, so now we have four presentations to get through in less than 25 minutes.

D. Lazaroff: I'd just like to give you a little bit of my background. I'm presently a youth support worker working in an elementary school. That's kindergarten to grade 7. There's presently about 350 students within the school. Also, in the financial class, I would say that we are in an area in the city where there is a very high rate of poverty within the school. My presentation to you is quite practical. It's a program that I'm running within the school, and I started it about a year and a half ago.

Before I even go into this, this is really about…. This is a hands-on program. It's a culinary arts program. What I would really encourage all of you to do is to go to the many different schools, look at their lunch program and see what they are offering to these kids.

I have been teaching kids how to cook probably for about the last ten years. I have a degree in child and youth care counselling. It's a tool that I use to reach the kids with many different aspects, such as ODD, ADHD. One time I was working with incarcerated youth. I had a whole bunch of kids with ADHD. As long as I was delegating their chores to them, they were flying around. I said to myself: can you imagine harnessing all this energy in a restaurant? This is absolutely fabulous.

We're talking about physical aspects. Well, cooking is very physical. If you work at a cooking job, you are on your feet all day long. It's high energy. It's a lot of fun. I have kids every day coming up: "Are we going to cook today?" We cook twice a week. These are kids in grade 4 to grade 7. I teach them, first of all, about kitchen safety. I teach them about working as team players.

You've all heard that saying: "If you build it, they will come." With the kids, if they will cook it, they will eat it — right? Twice a week what I do is…. On Mondays we have the kids — I have a whole bunch of cookbooks — produce a menu. This consists of an à la carte meal as well as a salad. I was quite surprised. I started out with an à la carte meal and then a dessert. I thought: "Well, I'm going to throw a salad in there one day to see if they will eat it." Sure enough, they did. Since then it has been an à la carte meal and a salad.

Like I say, the kids produce it. They go through my cookbooks. They do it. I go do the buying. I've also got another simple little thing that I do with them about once or twice a year. I will say: "Pretend you have $50. Here's the flyer. You're going to go shopping." I see what those kids buy with that $50. To some of the kids, I'll say: "I'm not going to your house for a week, because you're only going to be able to eat for two days." Whereas some other kids have been able to show with that money how they can eat. Like I say, these kids — some of them don't have a lot of money. Just because you do not have a lot of money does not mean you cannot eat healthily.

Here, there is a very high amount of children — I periodically ask the kids — who eat out. A lot of the kids say that they eat out four times a week. We have parents who, instead of making their lunches, drop off their lunches, and this is usually McDonald's or Subway.

Other parts of my program. We sell popcorn and smoothies, and we raise funds for the school. With that fundraising these kids have been able to buy chef uniforms. So when they are in the cooking program, they're all dressed up. They can't wait to get into these little chef uniforms. You can see the pride on their faces when they're going into this program. They absolutely love it.

We also make smoothies. These consist of fruits, milk and yogurt. I encourage them to come up with different types of ideas, different types of fruit. The ripple effect is that they're coming up to me and saying that they've made these at home, and that's what I want them to do.

Also, with the popcorn- and smoothie-making, I'm mandated to work with the children, 116s, within our school. A lot of these kids do not work well in the normal way of being educated, especially kids with ADHD. They can't sit in their seat. One thing about selling the popcorn. I have them counting the money. They're counting the money, and that's how they're working their math. That's how they're doing it.

One young man had a very hard time with his math skills. One day we were counting the money, and he says to me: "Counting this money is kind of important to what we're doing — right?" I said: "Yeah. It tells us how much money we're making. Are we making a profit?"

He was all about profit in the beginning, because he said: "Well, we should sell less and charge them more." I said: "No, they won't come back." Anyhow, he did say to me: "Oh, so math is a good thing here — right?" I said yes. So he actually got it with the hands-on.

From then it was easy sailing. Within about six months, I'd say, this young man turned around from the first day that I met him, saying, "I hate schools; all schools suck," to: "I really enjoy coming to this school. You've been a great friend." Unfortunately, he had to move, but he went from that.

When you're dealing with kids with behaviour problems like that, they don't affect just one person. They affect the whole school. With him, he actually felt that he was a real part of the school.

My next project that we started was a soup day at the school. What I've done is — I think we have about 12 classes — gone to each class, asked them all to bring cut-up vegetables. One class brought celery, one class brought corn — this type of thing — and we made hot soup for the whole school. Approximate cost of it was between $20 and $30. Safeway donated the buns. That $20 to $30 included the cups. Everyone in the school got to have a healthy soup, absolutely all vegetables. I had two complaints out of 350 kids. They say: "When are you going to do it again?"

This is why I'm encouraging you to go look at the lunch program and see what the cost is, knowing that I can produce a very healthy soup at $20 to $30. Also, you have the kids producing it. You know, we have free labour. Let's use them — right? We have a bunch of free labour.

Also, like I say, we're teaching them a life skill. We're getting these kids away from obesity. If we're teaching them to eat fruit, they're not going to make those other types of choices.

My cooking program. As I've seen it produce results, I've kind of made it bigger and bigger. We did an Easter turkey dinner.

R. Sultan (Chair): If I could just interrupt, we've got about two more minutes.

D. Lazaroff: Okay. Another idea of mine is to encourage the children to drink water. I think that all desks should have a hole in the corner, starting from kindergarten, so that they have a water bottle at their desks. Drinking water produces energy. A lot of these kids come in the morning, and they're tired, whatever. I tell them to go have a drink of water, and I know this has helped. It will also begin a pattern of them drinking water.

My goals are to teach kids how to cook and to show them that it's fun. I want to teach them about nutrition, show them that vegetables can taste good. I also teach them about a balance between protein and carbs. Again, the lunch program has a lot of carbs, and then we tell them to sit down in the afternoon after they've eaten a whole bunch of carbs. If we can teach them about a balance between protein and carbs, I think they will have a much higher learning ability, because their brains will be working properly.

I teach them about kitchen safety, teamwork. As you've heard here, many of the students work here. I would like the province to pay for me to have the training so that the grade 7s will have their FoodSafe certification when they leave.

I would also encourage other elementary schools to have cooking classes. Why do they have to wait till high school to start learning how to cook? I encourage teaching parents about nutrition.

Also, along the lines of physical stuff, I do run a program at lunchtime for the kids to come in for free to play in the gym. Grade 1 is Monday and so on and so forth to Friday. Kids express a want to play hockey here. It's a huge sport. However, many of my kids cannot afford it. It's a thousand dollars. So why don't we give them tokens so that at least they can go skating?

Many of the sports here cost money. There is no free stuff in town, so opening up the gyms would be an absolutely fabulous idea.

Also, along the lines of people with kids who do not like to have sport as an activity, I do photography with kids. I take them out walking. This is a beautiful place, and they can also discover their city here.

There is no youth centre in Fort St. John. Why? I don't know. We have more millionaires per capita in this city, and we do not have a youth centre, which is absolutely appalling to me.

One of the things that kids say most to me about this city is that they're bored. There is nothing to do. If they do not have money, they have nothing to do. They sit at home. They are actually glad to come back to school.

R. Sultan (Chair): Dillan, thank you very much. I'm sure that many on the panel would want to explore these very interesting elements of the program you've described. I would like to save that for when we break at the end of hearing from the other three presenters. I know their time in limited, and we're operating on a rather tight schedule.

I think we'll dispense with the immediate questions, hold them until after this session has formally adjourned and turn now to Lynn Locher with the Success By 6 organization. We have ten minutes here, Lynn. Ten minutes to cover the world.

L. Locher: Okay. Well, I'm going to take a little bit of a different approach here because I represent a group whose mandate is to work with the group zero to six. We have a very active council of partners and community tables. We have over 23 different organizations that participate at these tables. This is cross-sectoral. It includes business, government, ministries, service organizations and municipalities.

I really applaud the government to support the funding for Success By 6. We have reached quite a momentum, and unfortunately, the funding for this is secure only till June of '07. We're hoping that you will have the wisdom to continue with this tremendous initiative.

Having said that, I just wanted to tell you that we have done some community research as to what were the needs and priorities of the population zero to six. In the research we have conducted, some of the things that we have found out, for example, are that not only do we have probably the highest birthrate in the province — northeast B.C. does — we're the second-youngest population after Whistler. We have an enormous amount of families with young children.

We have the highest teen pregnancy rate — or one of the highest. I was just learning today that the abortion rate is atrocious on top of that.

The other thing is that we know we have the highest smoking rates, so a huge secondhand smoke impact on children. We also have a higher participation of parents in the workforce.

What is misleading is that because we also have the highest disposable income and a higher-than-average salary — family income — we also have a much higher than average number of families that are at the poverty level. So we have two extremes — a lot of low incomes and high earners but very few in the middle.

Having said that, I feel that the approach of this city needs very much to be a community approach because it has very many aspects that need to be impacted. Collaboration and working together as a community is the only way to be really effective.

Some of the things that we've come across…. For example, we have a real crisis with child care. This is where it starts — zero to six — because if you don't have good awareness and start good habits, you're just going to compound the problems in the future. If you have good interventions and prevention programs, zero to six, it's going to cost a lot less down the road. Zero to six is the easiest to impact.

In the child care situation, for example, we have a lack of space, resources. There is no physical activity that starts at the child care settings because of lack of resources and staffing. This is where it needs to start and to be able to offer a good quality preschool experience to every child. For example, on our prenatal program we have…. This is supposed to address 10 percent of the high-risk pregnancies within this community. We have over 600 births in this region. I mean, with the population, it's huge. We have about 100 women that attend that program on a yearly basis, and 40 percent of them do not have access to the nutritious food that they need for a healthy pregnancy. So that's a real huge issue.

With our committee table of Success By 6 we've tried to set up some food security committees. We have a little bit of funding, not a huge amount. We couldn't find an organization or a resource that had the capacity to even work on the issues, never mind…. It's not that the will wasn't there, but the capacity is not there to deal with the issues. So we really need to have some more support in building capacity so that we can at least ensure that families have access to the nutritious food that they need to have a healthy life, especially at the pregnancy level. That's a big concern.

Awareness in education with parents and families has to be huge. I mean, because parents are so busy and stressed, and we have…. The workforce — we have such a lack of workers, so a lot of parents work. That impacts how they feed their children and the amount of physical activities that they're involved in,

so we need more awareness — public awareness — through the involvement of everybody. Schools are a nice place to do a lot of stuff, but it needs to start earlier than that. Municipalities have to have the message. Public health, government agencies — everybody — need to pass on the same message.

There is a lack of education for parents of younger children. What is the appropriate amount of food? What is an ideal weight? I mean, that type of thing tied in with the appropriate developmental stages for children.

I just want to say very briefly in terms of physical activities within the school — this is not Success By 6 — that it seems to me that we have gone a long way in meeting individual needs of children within the school system in terms of academic progress. But are we doing that in terms of physical activity? We tried to put them all in the same mould as opposed to really looking at what every child really needs. We seem to turn them off as opposed to getting them engaged in the physical activity.

Physical activity is a lot more than sports, and there are so many different things that you can do to engage children in being physically active. There just needs to be more resources around that. Thank you.

R. Sultan (Chair): Thank you, Lynn Locher. It's quite clear from your presentation that Success By 6 is doing vitally important work in the community, which merits our support.

Our next presenter is Anel Meintjes. Now perhaps you can explain to us who you are and what you do, and then tell us your advice.

A. Meintjes: I am the community nutritionist for the northeast health authority. I didn't officially prepare a presentation, because we're actually busy with kindergarten screening, and I felt this was a priority. I just thought I would like to share with you some of the things that we are actually doing up here to target obesity, because there are a lot of positive things happening.

I may just start first…. You probably know all the stats already regarding the health issues in Fort St. John. Just to recap it for you, in a nutshell, we do have some of the highest smoking rates and the highest birth rate. If you look at the 2003 cancer health survey, for kids, we have the highest rate of physical activity obesity and the lowest intake of fruit and vegetables. We are in a daunting position, but we are doing some positive things.

In the spring of this year different members of school district 60 formed a committee to write a food and nutrition policy. We are actually waiting for board approval for that. From that, we will, hopefully, disseminate it to all the schools in school district 60. The basis of that is the new food and beverage sales guidelines for schools from the province.

I agree with Lynn, the previous speaker, on community approach. From the Northern Health side we are working with the school district around policy development and how to actually make healthy changes.

From my program's perspective, we're in the process of disseminating a nutrition manual that will help schools to make healthy choices. It contains information for students, for parents and even for teachers. Some of the students mentioned the lack of nutrition education within the school system. There's even a curriculum for teachers to follow. Again, I can say that I do get calls from teachers in the school district in the Fort St. John area for resources and for presentations regarding food and nutrition, which I have done. So there is some work that has been done.

For sure, it's something that can be encouraged. Food and nutrition is not really mandatory, I think, in the curriculum in the schools. It's the decision of the teacher whether they would like to do that or not. I do get many calls.

One thing I would like to mention from working with the schools is about selling food in schools. A big thing is fundraising and fear of loss of revenue. I know that in one of the schools in our town, the fundraising funds the sports programs to a very large extent. There's a lot of fear, so I hope that there will be some dialogue between the Ministry of Education and the schools in potentially supporting the schools for this.

The last thing I quickly want to mention is something totally off the topic. I always believe it's good to listen to neighbours and people who are maybe more advanced in the process of school health. I recently joined the Alberta coalition for school health, and we had this big conference in Red Deer. There was a whole half-day session spearheaded by students who did a peer review. They interviewed their peers — more than a thousand students. They wanted to identify issues regarding school health.

Nutrition was one, physical activity, smoking, but most of the dialogue from the students' perspective was around stress. The amount of time that students spend on academic work, but especially work outside of school time, was mentioned here today.

There was an interesting question on why children work so much. They came up with the solutions and the troubleshooting and all the answers. They mentioned interesting things on how they enter the job market at a much earlier age than I probably would have done. The reason for that is they want all the gadgets. They want the iPods. They want the clothing. They have their own cars. Their parents are so busy at work, so they need more gas money, money for entertainment.

The other thing they actually mentioned was that they eat most of their meals outside the home environment. That includes the school environment. It's just because parents are too busy, and they'd rather give them money.

What I would like to end off with is this. I think we do have a responsibility in the education system to support children in making healthy choices by looking at pricing, marketing, what we sell in the cafeterias, what we educate them on in the curriculum and how we support them to make these healthy choices. Because the truth is that they eat most of their meals outside of the home environment.

I do think there's a lot that we can do, and if you look at some research around obesity and school nutrition, there's a huge relationship between obesity and what children eat at school — just because they spend so much time there.

At the end, there are some things that we actually do in Fort St. John, and I think we are moving in the right direction. We are working together from a public health, Northern Health and Ministry of Education perspective.

R. Sultan (Chair): Thank you, Anel. Before you leave, Anel, because you did not consume your full ten minutes, maybe we have time for one or two questions.

C. Wyse: It isn't going to be a question, because of the space we have for time. But as a committee member, I would like to go on record to ensure that our committee obtains the information from the health authorities, with the emphasis on what they give towards nutrition and the provision. In particular, I would like to ensure that our staff provides us with the number of nutritionists that are in Northern Health and the area over which they are to provide the support and that type of an aspect.

I've now gone on record in seeking that information, because I believe you've raised some very important points.

M. Sather: Anel, you've brought up a big issue — and it's been brought up here by the students and others, too — about the work thing. I was asking some of the students on the break: "Why do you work 20 to 40 hours a week?"

You talked about some of the things you've heard at the conference you went to. Do you have any suggestions on how we as a society or as legislators, parents, etc., can address the issue of students working so much?

A. Meintjes: Well, I guess what they do outside the school environment — we may have very little influence there. If they want the iPod and the fancy clothes and all that, they will go for that.

But I think if they have the money to buy maybe the lunches at school — to give them, at least, the healthy option…. I don't have children, so it's kind of hard for me to say about parenting, but I think outside of the school system, we may have very little influence. We can only inspire them; we cannot command them. That I know.

But I think we should give them, at least within the school system, a healthy choice. And maybe there should be some policy — well, this is maybe a very difficult thing — on what is around a school, where children can go to. I don't think it's right if McDonald's, for example, is so close to a school. That's just my personal opinion — right? That's something different.

I just think that we should probably focus on what we can offer them in regards to healthy choices within the school time and within the school system. But outside, they want the iPod, they want the clothes, they want the gas money, and they want the entertainment — which I guess is fair.

R. Sultan (Chair): Thank you, Anel. We have consumed our ten minutes. We could talk about this important subject for at least another hour, I'm sure. I certainly would enjoy doing that.

Again, with an eye on the clock and the fact that we have an aircraft leaving for Williams Lake shortly that we all have to be on, we will turn to our final presenter of the morning, Juliana Garcia of North Peace Secondary School. My notes tell me that Juliana is a youth support worker.

I've had a variety of experience over the past ten years. I'm just going to explain my credentials first before I get into some of these issues.

I have my bachelor of arts in child and youth care counselling. I'm also a recreational therapist. I have also worked as a community therapist for children's mental health in this area. I also currently have a private practice where I work with a variety of families. I also do pro bono work with four families. I'm a youth support worker this year at the high school. I have been an elementary school counsellor in this district as well as an uncertified teacher on call.

I am currently working for my teaching certificate in order to promote change. My position here is considered a youth support worker. I'm funded under the 116 intensive behaviour funding, which, unfortunately, in some ways prevents me from doing some of the preventative intervention programs that I'd like to do and which I have proposed.

The funding is designed for crisis intervention rather than prevention. There are a couple of programs that I have proposed to this district as well as to this school. Unfortunately, because of how the funding does work, I'm unable to implement those preventative education programs, which are specifically designed for obesity.

I myself have battled with that all my life. I currently have a group of students who are female and who could eventually be put on my intensive-behaviour list but are not severe enough to do that. Therefore, I can't work with them. These girls have put forth that they would be willing to participate in some of the preventative education programs. One of them is based on the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. I don't

know if you guys are familiar with it. Dove has tapped in — market-wise, obviously — to promote healthy self-esteem.

I'm not specifically talking about some of these students that I work with now but in general in this district. My colleagues have done an excellent job promoting the nutrition and that, so I'm not going to go into that. However, it's emotional eating that they do. If that's what they're doing, and we're targeting nutrition through manuals and stuff, who's going to implement the other part? There are two parts to it. It's not just nutrition. There's the emotional and social part.

One of the most frustrating experiences I've had is trying to implement those programs for those…. I'm just thinking of these particular girls, but in general in my private practice and in my children's mental health…. In the preventative education programs there's not the funding to provide them. I've had several proposals put forth, even trying to challenge obesity, but also to do a community service initiative based on John Abbott's research, and they have been turned down due to funding purposes.

R. Sultan (Chair): Juliana, can I ask you exactly what you do in working on this emotional dimension to help these people?

J. Garcia: Some of the things I do with the girls…. What I'd like to do is run a group with these girls where I'm exposing them to various types of activities within our own community. I know that a lot of them have stigma toward average-sized persons. So for someone like me who battles with obesity, it makes it a lot easier to build rapport with those girls.

What I'd like to do is be able to go into the community and expose them to different physical activities that they can do and not let them see that, because they're plus-sized, they can't do anything. Because that's what happens, and then they just continue the emotional eating, and the cycle continues.

Like I said, funding for my time is not necessarily specified for that. I can deal with them on a crisis-intervention basis. If they're having an emotional day, I can deal with that. But I can't do those preventative things that I would like to do.

There are a couple of barriers in that. Our city states that it's an active-living community. However, I grew up in the lower mainland, in Surrey. They have an active-living community, and, in fact, low-income families qualify for recreational passes. We do not have that in our town. We do not have that for the pool, the skating rink — nothing.

I get 12 passes a year for the swimming pool, which I write letters for. I have to be careful who I give those to. Those girls don't want to go alone, so I give out two passes. So I have six times in one year that they can go to the pool, and I have to distribute that among six or seven girls or however many I've got. I've got some males as well. I'm just pointing out the girls right now, because they're in my head.

There's no access. This town is very money-oriented, and if we say we are an active-living community, we need to be one. How can we support that? Some of my concerns, even with our future Enerplex that we have coming in, is that those kids who want to even try, can't access it because they don't have the funds.

There are a variety of issues that are concerning. One of them is the funding for someone to implement preventative education programs. The other is access to those recreation sites. Luckily, some of the places in town….Sisters gym is willing to donate a one-month pass for the girls that I have in that group — if I get to run that group.

We have such talented people in this town. My colleague Dillan Lazaroff has done an excellent job at Duncan Cran. To see these programs, to have these ideas and to want to present these ideas — and coming from a historical background of education and knowing that these things would work — and the funds aren't there.

You asked, Michael, about how you can provide support for people. It's supporting positions like mine.

K. Whittred: Yes, Juliana. I think you're the second speaker today that's mentioned this 116 funding. I understand what you're saying about the barriers that that puts in place. Can you tell me: is that a board…?

K. Whittred: Thank you. That is something that I can take up with the minister, now that I know.

R. Sultan (Chair): Well, Juliana, you have presented a very vivid picture of an important service, and we understand a little bit better the challenge that you've described.

J. Garcia: There are several proposals which have been put forth that just aren't accepted, because preventative education programs aren't on the forefront. It's crisis intervention.

We have one final one-minute presentation that Dana Malloy has volunteered for us. Dana is a nurse with the Northern Health Authority.

D. Malloy: Good morning. I am the coordinator for chronic disease cardiac rehab at the hospital, and I'm an acute care nurse. I've been a nurse for about 15 years. I'll make this quick. There are a few points that I've noticed today where I'm just itching to say: "Wow, we have to do something about this."

I see the other spectrum. We're spending 40 cents on every dollar for health care. I look, and I say: "What can we do?" The biggest thing for me is fitness.

When you guys get on your plane this afternoon for Williams Lake, why are you going to put your seatbelt on? Why are you going to do it? Because you have to do it. It's mandatory. Why do you wear helmets for bikes? You have to do it. It's mandatory. Why do my kids ask me about recycling? It's like: oh my gosh, put my seatbelt on. I wouldn't even think twice to not do it, because I have two in the back saying: "Mommy, mommy, put your seatbelt on."

I think if we make phys ed in schools a requirement where, say, you have so many credits to graduate, like Jeff recommended…. I think that's amazing.

Physical activity. Everyone thinks about it like, "Oh, we have to do a sport," or you've got to drop your kid off and drive them somewhere. Drop them off, and it's all organized sports. Whatever happened to: "Kids, it's 20 degrees today. We're going to have math class outside. Let's walk around the block and count the telephone poles." Can we think outside the box a little bit and get activity back in the schools?

Also, my little bit of a beef is that there's no health education in high schools. I find that astronomical. I also sit on the PARTY program. It's the prevention of alcohol trauma–related youth injuries. They come to the hospital and learn. There is not one person teaching these kids about sex, about health, about anything like that.They've told me they feel that they can't talk to their parents.

I'm thinking that if we get the nurses back in the schools, or at least link the health care and education systems back together, or even — I don't know what the teachers would think — the 181 days a year that the students are in school…. What if we cut their lunch break by ten minutes, add on 15 minutes in the morning, where they start a few minutes early, and say: "This is now your half an hour of phys ed"? It can be in ten-minute increments.

Then what are they going to do for the other 184 days of the year? A lunar cycle is 28 days — to create a habit. Maybe we can create these habits in these young, young children which they can present, bring home to their parents, and it can affect the whole environment. Instead of trying to grab them when they already have all their chronic health, disease problems, let's start early. We guys have a window that we can do this. You guys are instrumental in that.

R. Sultan (Chair): We are being ejected from the room. Other priorities are intervening, and we have a plane to catch.

I would like to wind up this consultation session of the select standing committee at North Peace Secondary School with a thank-you again to the principal, Daniel Vecchio, and to our marathoner, Janelle Morrison, for having orchestrated a highly successful morning, and most particularly to the students of North Peace Secondary, who have given us a remarkable body of information and advice to carry back to Victoria.

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13)	Save Our Northern Seniors’ Society (S.O.N.S.S.)	Jean Leahy Ruth Ann Darnall
14)	Dillan Lazaroff
15)	Lynn Locher
16)	Anel Meintjes
17)	Juliana Garcia
18)	Dana Malloy

	1)	Janelle Morrison
	2)	Kristy Fantham
	3)	Nikki Kupchanko
	4)	Ryan Stickel
	5)	Lindsay Ward
	6)	Lauren Odendahl
	7)	Emily Palibroda
	8)	Jeff Kouwenhoven
	9)	Ted Sloan
	10)	Samantha Wallin
	11)	Nadine Aulin
	12)	Ashley Fell

Committee Staff:	Jonathan Fershau (Committee Research Analyst) Carla Shore (Committee Consultant)

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS (Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
HEALTH