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Charles E. Pascal delivering the Keynote address.
Session summary
Charles E. Pascal lauded members of the audience for past
accomplishments and challenged listeners about the need to
be strategic and vigilant.
He referenced Roy Romanow's 7 tips for a healthy life from
a speech called Connecting
the Dots: From Health Care and Illness to Wellbeing:
1. Don't be poor - income and income inequalities are most
related to poor health
2. Pick your parents well - nurture a sense of children's
opportunities in their early years.
3. Graduate from high school - basic schooling is highly
associated with social and health status
4. Do not work in low paid stressful jobs - having more
control of decisions is healthy
5. Do not lose your job - being unemployed undercuts income
and social networks
6. Know your neighbours - good housing and robust social
networks are key to good health
7. Live in a good community - in terms of people and also
environmentally safe and clean
He introduced the Canadian Index of Well-Being as a new tool
to measure social well-being:
 Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) tracks domestic spending but it does not tell
us about social success and failings.
The Health Council
of Canada tracks public expenditures on medical treatment,
but has no mandate to report on income distribution.
We must reinvent
indicators, policy and social infrastructures
The Canadian Index
of Well-Being - the mother of all policy tools - has been
collaboratively designed to measure well-being.
Pascal offered reasons for hope:
Many vibrant groups
are showing leadership, OPC among them
Minister of Health
Promotion, Jim Watson has struck an inter ministerial committee.
He concluded by emphasizing one aspect of moving upstream:
Nothing illustrates
whether we care about the future of the planet more than
how we take care of our children.
He asked each conference
participant to take a moment to focus on one child, think
about our wishes for that child, and how we can each personally
help put social change in play to make a difference in his
or her life.
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