I believe that family comes first and that means looking out for the health and welfare of Canadian families.

Over the past 25 years, the rise in the proportion of children in our country who are overweight or obese has been alarming. Obesity rates have nearly tripled among children all over the country since 1985.

In order to combat this growing problem, Minister of Health, The Hon. Leona Aglukkaq, and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, The Hon. Josée Verner, have announced increased funding for programs that will examine ways to decrease childhood obesity and encourage our kids to stay healthy and physically active.

One initiative we have introduced to encourage children to have fun being active is the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit, introduced in 2007. The program allows a non-refundable tax credit based on eligible expenses paid by parents to register a child under the age of 16 in a prescribed physical activity program.

This aims to encourage parents to register their children for organized forms of physical exercise that contribute to cardio-respiratory endurance and muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and balance.

By instilling in children at an early age the idea that physical activity can be fun and is an essential part of a healthy and productive lifestyle, we can minimize the health problems they encounter later on in life.

The Eat Well and Be Active Educational Toolkit is a package filled with information to assist health and education specialists in teaching children and adults about the importance of healthy eating and physical activity and encourage them to take action to maintain and improve their health. The kit comes with a poster, downloadable activity plans, and tips for healthy eating and physical activity.

To ensure Canadians have the information they need to make informed food choices to help maintain and improve their health, our government is working with Food & Consumer Products of Canada to develop the Nutrition Facts Education Campaign. The campaign will assist consumers in understanding and making full use of the information in the Nutrition Facts table on food labels. Canadians are encouraged to look at this information, particularly the Percent Daily Value section, to know how much of a nutrient a food contains.

We want all Canadians to live long, healthy lives, and this begins with instilling habits of nutritious eating and active living in childhood.

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