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A Word from your Chair
Welcome to the first issue of the Coalition for Active Living's e-newsletter.
Active News will allow us keep you up to date on CAL's initiatives
and progress.
At December's board meeting and AGM in Regina, we bid farewell to
the last two original members of the CAL board of directors – Guy
Tanguay and Garth Turtle. Guy and Garth have contributed countless
hours since 1999, and have made significant contributions to where
the Coalition is today. They will be missed. Numerous nominations
to fill these positions have been received – new board members
will be announced this month.
Project priorities for 2005/06 were identified at the board meeting.
We have a busy but exciting year ahead of us! Priorities include
a new 'Policy Watch' mechanism (described below) to be profiled on
our web site, further promotion of the Pan-Canadian
Physical Activity Strategy, and efforts to bring our members
together to address community and physical activity leadership needs
across the country.
The CAL board also had the opportunity to participate in the Building
the Movement meeting, co-hosted by Saskatchewan in Motion, CAHPERD
and CAL. This conference brought together 30 of the leading physical
activity strategies across the country. Together, they identified
needed common supports and actions. They also shared information
and learnings to help ensure successful strategies.
On behalf of the CAL board, I would like to wish you all a rewarding
2005, and hope that, together, we can increase the number of Canadians
who are leading active, healthy lives.
Rick Bell
Chair, CAL Board of Directors
Policy
Watch
CAL is currently
developing a Web-based policy watch mechanism to identify, communicate
and recommend appropriate responses to policies of national significance
that affect the physical activity status of Canadians. The Policy
Watch mechanism will be coordinated by CAL, with significant input
from members.
Through this newsletter, new policies identified on the Web site
will be communicated. Members will be given the opportunity to comment
on new policies and the appropriateness of the recommended actions
(if any) by clicking on "Submit comment". Comments will then appear
on the Policy Watch Web site.
We need your help! We are looking for interested individuals and
organizations to monitor and/or contribute policies that affect the
ability of Canadians to be active, within their jurisdictions. Interested?
Contact us at info@activeliving.ca.
Pan-Canadian
Physical Activity Strategy
In April 2004,
CAL launched the Pan-Canadian
Physical Activity Strategy at a meeting in Quebec City. The strategy
is a milestone in the collaborative effort of CAL's membership to
determine strategic priorities and directions that must be undertaken
at all levels to ensure increase of physical activity among Canadians.
Not only was the strategy well received, it has also been endorsed
by many organizations and continues to be promoted. Even the plan
of action being proposed to the 14 Ministers responsible for Physical
Activity in Canada has been informed by the strategy.
In December, CAL produced an executive summary of the strategy. Click here and
have a look.
Meeting
with Ministers
On
November 16th, Dr. Andrew Pipe, Guy Tanguay, Dr. Rick Bell, and Stephen
Grundy met with Dr. Carolyn Bennett, the Honourable Minister of Public
Health. This was an important meeting, and laid the foundation for
future joint work.
Given the current planning in public health, CAL stressed the need
for leadership at the federal level. CAL also emphasized that investment
in physical activity is a means to building a more sustainable health
care system in Canada.
Minister Bennett informed CAL that Prime Minister Paul Martin has
given her authority as Minister Responsible for Physical Activity.
She has assumed leadership in this area, and is consulting with Minister
Stephen Owen (Sport) and Minister Ken Dryden (Social Development).
CAL emphasized that the Ministers Responsible for Transportation,
Justice and Infrastructure also be included in the consultation process.
CAL offered to assist in designing actions to address physical inactivity
as a risk factor for health, as well as facilitate or assist in facilitating
a meeting or process to bring together government officials from
the federal, provincial/ territorial (FP/T) and municipal levels
with the voluntary sector. Together, they could design collaborative
strategies to make Canada the most physically active nation in the
world – well beyond the 10 per cent goal undertaken by FP/T
Ministers – so that physical activity becomes a cornerstone
of Canada's approach to healthy living.
Members’ Corner
This section of
the newsletter is dedicated to CAL members who wish to share
relevant information on strategies, programs, upcoming events,
workshops, conferences, etc.
Click here to submit your information for our
next issue. Conditions apply. |
Contents
A Word from you Chair
Policy Watch
What's New?
How to contact your local MP
Meeting with Ministers
CAL is growing
Members’ Corner
WHAT'S
NEW?
Launch of new CAL look
We're excited to introduce CAL's new logo and tagline. Click here to
see it up close.
CAL educates MPs
CAL has just launched a distribution campaign to encourage
Members of Parliament to take action and help make the case
for physical activity. All federal MPs, as well as selected
provincial/territorial members, have received a package containing
a personalized cover letter and a hard hitting brochure.
Click here to
see an electronic version of the brochure.
Key messages
Click here for
CAL's key messages. Feel free to use them whenever you are
communicating about the Coalition through your networks.
Better yet, use them today and write or call your Member
of Parliament. Or send an email and encourage your colleagues
to write.
Don't forget to send us a copy of your letter so we can track the
great advocacy work of our members. Please send to info@activeliving.ca.
How
to contact your local Member of Parliament:
1. Go to www.parl.gc.ca
2. Under "Current Parliamentarians," enter your postal code in the
designated box and click "Find." "Current Parliamentarians," enter
your postal code in the designated box and click "Find."
3. Contact your local MP using the contact information provided for
both the parliamentary address and the constituency address.
CAL
is growing
CAL now has 82 organizational
members and 635 individual members!
Click here for
a list of our organizational members and government partners. |
