Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the eve of National Nutritional Month in March, we recently were reminded of the nine-year success of the Drop the Pop campaign in the NWT, which I

want to commend all stakeholders for upholding and supporting all these years.

This campaign, which is part of the Healthy Choices framework, has done wonders to support the reduction and sometimes elimination of sugary beverages in our schools, promoting healthier eating and lifestyle management.

However, recently Canada has come under fire since the publication of a study in the journal of JAMA Internal Medicine that concluded people who get 25 percent or more of their daily calories from added sugar are three times more likely to die of heart disease. According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian consumes upward of 26 teaspoons of sugar a day, which accounts for more than 20 percent of total calories, and further estimates that more than one-third of sugar Canadians consume is added by manufacturers to foods.

I can only assume, based on NWT’s eating habits and lack of affordable healthy food choices, our sugar consumption is much higher. The political spin on this is that our related health costs due to caloric obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular and diabetes are many times higher than the rest of Canada and, thus, we should be paying attention.

These national statistics are so alarming that the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is planning to unveil new guidelines on sugar consumption sometime this spring and urging all levels of government to get involved. We are already seeing such organizations like the American Heart Association recommending a sugar limit of 5 percent of daily calories for women and 7.5 percent for men. Given all the data, it’s clear that we need to collectively toughen our stance on sugar, like our previous governments did with the Drop the Pop campaign.

Not wanting to leave things to chance, I will be proposing an action on sugar awareness program for the Minister of Health and Social Services and seeking his support on NWT promoting a less sugary world for our residents. Let’s see if his taste buds are up for the challenge. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.