ParticipACTION report card gives young people a D+ on physical activity

Young children not active enough This week, ParticipACTION gave Canadian kids and young people a poor grade for their physical activity levels

This week, ParticipACTION gave Canadian kids and young people a D+ grade for physical activity levels.

The non-profit charitable organization said kids are still getting a failing grades, which means more needs to be done to boost their activity levels.

“That means that only 39 per cent of children and youth in Canada are getting the recommended 60 minutes of heart-pumping physical activity per day,” said Brianne Bruijns, exercise scientist with ParticipACTION.

While families and schools are big influences, Bruijns said a coordinated effort is needed.

“Parks and recreation facilities in the community are huge influences on physical activity, especially for low-income Canadians,” she said.

“Policies can be put in place to safeguard physical activity by investing in active transportation infrastructure, things like creating subsidies for low-income Canadians.”

Cindy Dent, Sudbury’s manager of recreation, said the city works hard to provide opportunities for people to get active in their own neighbourhoods.

“Between our arenas, our pools, our fitness centres, a lot of our volunteer-supported outdoor rinks, the skate path on Ramsey (Lake) and beaches, we are very fortunate here to have a number of different opportunities here for our residents,” Dent said.

She said the city will spend more than $4 million on the outdoor court revitalization, which is expected to be complete by 2027.

Officials at the YMCA in Sudbury said many people don’t know there is a sliding scale for fees for families with financial challenges.

Financial support

“Here at the Y, we do everything we can to financially support those to access all of our programs and services as well as any of our camps,” said Kendra MacIsaac, the YMCA’s vice-president of health and wellness.

But MacIsaac said many people still haven’t gotten back into their pre-COVID-19 routines, especially when it comes to getting active.

“Pre-pandemic our financial assistance rate was close to 30 per cent of our membership, which was pretty significant,” she said.

“Coming out of the pandemic, we did not renew anybody who was receiving any type of financial support because we didn’t know what their financial circumstances were. So those people have had to reapply.”

The report found that some of the barriers kids face when it comes to being active include screen time, cost and time constraints, as well as climate change.

Another notable finding in the report is that 31 per cent of girls compared to 57 per cent of boys are meeting the physical activity recommendation.