44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 18, 2023 02:00PM
Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of Bill C-252, the child health protection act.
For many years, the NDP has been calling for a law to stop junk food advertising aimed at children, and 11 years ago we called for such a ban, but no action was taken by successive Conservative and Liberal governments. I am hopeful that with the support from all parties, we can pass this bill and stop the barrage of junk food ads directed toward kids.
I am also hoping that we go further than that, by putting in place a national school food program that gives every child the nutritious food they need to thrive.
The evidence is clear that banning junk food directed at young children leads to better health outcomes. Quebec has had such a ban in place for over 40 years and the results speak for themselves. Fast food consumption in Quebec has gone down by 13% since the law was put in place. In addition, Quebec has the lowest obesity rates among five- to 17-year-olds and the highest consumption of fruits and vegetables in Canada.
It is a true nutrition success story that should be applied across the country. Not only will a law to stop junk food advertising benefit our kids' health, it also makes financial sense.
This is a preventative step that in the long term will mean fewer visits to the ER for preventable diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. At a time when our health care system is strained and faced with an aging population, it is a no-brainer for us to reduce the pressure on the system by passing this bill into law.
It is immoral for the CEOs of big food companies to be profiting off pushing junk food to young children. As much of 90%, in fact, of the food ads children see are for unhealthy food products and these ads are increasingly sophisticated. Companies are making money off selling products to young people that are harmful for their health.
This is wrong and it has to stop. Just as we have done with big tobacco companies in severely restricting advertising of their products, we must do the same with big food companies that are irresponsibly marketing junk food to young children.
While the ban on junk food aimed at children is an important first step, it is not enough. We cannot have a conversation about ensuring that our kids are getting proper nutrition without talking about poverty. Poverty makes it so much more difficult for families to make the healthy food choices they would like to make but are unable to because of the lack of money.
I recall a story. As a young early childhood educator, when we instituted a no-junk-food lunch policy, a mother shared with me that it was cheaper for her to buy a bag of cookies that lasts two weeks than a bag of apples that lasts a week.
We cannot talk about healthy food choices without addressing issues of poverty, especially in this affordability crisis we are living in, with persistently high grocery prices. Far too many people simply cannot afford healthy food to sustain a balanced diet. Eating healthy is expensive and preparing healthy meals can also be very time-consuming.
When one is working two or three jobs to make ends meet, which is not uncommon in this country, particular with the affordability crisis, time becomes a luxury one cannot afford, leading one to choose convenience foods that are quick and cheap but unhealthy.
I see it in my own riding of Winnipeg Centre, which has the highest child poverty rate of any riding in the country.
Too many kids are going to school on an empty stomach. Families are choosing between groceries and rent. Food banks are reporting record usage, and the temporary pandemic benefits that kept families afloat have expired and have not been maintained. Poverty is a form of economic violence. I have likened choosing to keep people poor to one of the worst human rights violations, and poverty is something that is faced by many of my constituents, including children, which robs them of the best possible start in life.
That is wrong, and it is a direct result of deliberate policy choices.
I believe we need to make different choices to eliminate poverty and ensure that every child gets the nutritious food they need. It is a choice, and the lack of political will to eradicate poverty, especially for children, is unacceptable. One of these choices is implementing a national school food program. Providing every child with healthy school meals would be a game-changer that would go a long way towards improving nutrition in this country.
It is long past time for us to put such a program in place. Canada remains the only G7 country without a national school food program or national standards. In 2019, the Liberals promised in their federal budget to work towards implementing a program, but after four years, they have still not delivered.
I call upon the government to keep its promise and finally allocate funding for a national school food program in the upcoming federal budget. It would make a profound difference in the lives of children, including many children in my own riding of Winnipeg Centre, whose learning is harmed because they are not getting the healthy food they need. I am a former educator, and in my classroom I had a toaster, bread and other food, which I bought with my teaching salary as a classroom management program because I knew the kids in my classroom could not learn or stay focused on an empty stomach.
Another choice is introducing a guaranteed livable basic income for all people in Canada. Yesterday, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, I joined Senator Kim Pate in support of her bill, Bill S-233, and my own bill, Bill C-223, the national framework for a guaranteed livable basic income act, at a press conference. In its study of Bill S-233, the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance heard overwhelming support from experts and advocates for the social, economic and health benefits that a guaranteed livable basic income would provide.
Providing a guaranteed livable basic income is an idea whose time has come because we know the pandemic revealed the deep cracks in our social safety net, and those cracks remain. In every corner of this country, the human rights of people living below the poverty line are violated on a daily basis. I have called poverty one of the most violent human rights violations, one that robs people of their dignity and their humanity. In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, no one should be forced to sleep in tents, on the streets or in bus shelters. By providing everyone over the age of 17 who needs it with an unconditional cash transfer, a guaranteed livable basic income would lift millions of people out of poverty.
Poverty is expensive. In fact, poverty costs our country at least $80 billion a year. It costs our health care system, and one of the benefits of GLBI would be improving just that.
To conclude, I want to thank the member for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel for introducing the bill. I call on all members to support it, and I call on all members to support measures, including a national school food program and a guaranteed livable basic income, which would ensure no child in this country is ever hungry again.
1277 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, there is probably no one in this place who would disagree with the fact that I do not need to speak louder. I want to give a shout-out to our great interpreters and everybody who makes it possible for us to do the good work that we do in this place, including helping with some of those little technical issues.
I will get into some of the substance of the bill in just a second, but I was talking about Altario and the work people do there teaching kids. I saw an application letter that Principal Van Lagen shared the other day. It was incredible, because the applicant, who I believe was in grade nine, was applying to be the manager of the school farm. Can members imagine that? They are teaching kids and giving them those practical skills so they not only know how to eat healthy but also can be a part of that agricultural sector, which is pivotal in our nation.
When we come down to the root of this, we want Canadians to have access to healthy meals. I hope that every member of the House agrees with this, but when it comes to the practical reality of what the bill before us would accomplish, there are a few concerns I would like to highlight. One concern is that we need to make sure that we are, at every stage of the process, empowering parents to make the best call for their family in whatever their circumstance is. Whether they are part of an Inuit family in the north, a rural family in the area I represent or an inner-city family, every person needs to be empowered to make decisions that are best for them, and empowering parents needs to be at the root of this.
We also need to deal with things like food inflation. I will not speak at length about this, because I have in the past, but we need to address some of the challenges that are leading to food inflation, like the carbon tax and regulations that are adding some additional costs for farmers. That has to be addressed. Ultimately, we need to empower people to be prosperous at every step of the process. The best way we can ensure that people are healthy is to have an economy that is working for everyone.
I held a series of town halls, which I spoke about in a statement before question period today, and there are a lot of concerns that the folks from rural Alberta shared with me about how frustrated they are with the Liberal government. However, the number one concern brought forward at every town hall was the cost of living and the fear that people have for their future. I will highlight a couple of things that I believe need to be put on the record.
Legislation needs to be able to achieve its stated goal. Legislation in the province of Quebec, although it has regulations that address issues similar to ones in the legislation before us, has not done so. I am certainly concerned that the House would pass something that may not be able to be actualized in terms of a public policy objective. The regulations that are proposed in the bill are difficult to enforce. There is not very much clarity that it would be possible to see them brought about.
Something that has been highlighted specifically by a number of constituents, especially those who work very hard to do things like fundraising for school sports, is about sponsors, as in the case of Timbits hockey, for example. I would hate for the bill to accidentally limit the ability of Canadians to play soccer or hockey because of not allowing a company to sponsor kids to be able to do just that. It could be an incidental, and I hope not an intentional, part of the bill.
I have heard a great deal of support for the bill, and certainly there is widespread agreement that we need to have a plan to ensure that kids' and seniors' tummies are full. There is nothing more heartbreaking than when we hear a senior talk about having to limit their dietary intake. One tragic story is that a senior thought the only thing they could afford was pet food. We need to make sure we have a plan to address health and nutrition at every stage of the process.
Certainly, when it comes to the laudable objectives of the bill, healthier kids, it is great, but when it comes to actually delivering on those results, I am concerned that the bill falls far short of the mark that would deem it worthy of support in this place.
793 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
