At a time when the world is making a historic transition to a low-carbon future, international collaboration is vital to supporting innovation and making progress. Kim Rudd, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Jim Carr, Canada’s Minister of Natur…

An Angus-Reed poll finds this :In a poll released Monday, 47 per cent of respondents said Canada is taking in the right number of refugees, while 41 per cent said the number is already too high. Only 11 per cent of the 1,508 adults surveyed said the co…

I would like to start by thanking and commending the entire team at Enactus uOttawa, the organization that is hosting us today. I would also like to highlight the excellent work they do in social innovation, both here in the region and throughout the c…

Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation presented to Ontario residents

Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, Carla Qualtrough, on behalf of Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food, Lawrence MacAulay, today announced a $1.1 million investment in Mazza Innovation to expand their plant extract production facility in…

The Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) can help Canadians with disabilities achieve long-term financial security through two financial incentives – the Canada Disability Savings Bond and the Canada Disability Savings Grant. The more Canadians th…

The Government of Canada has launched an ambitious tobacco control agenda for Canada, which includes banning menthol in most tobacco products, implementing plain packaging requirements, introducing a new approach to regulating vaping products, and mode…

Ottawa, October 12, 2016-The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, will attend the Public Policy Forum’s first Canada Growth Summit.

The Atlantic economy is built on the region’s many geographic, linguistic and cultural communities. From rural areas to larger urban centres, the opportunities and challenges vary significantly. To be sustainable and grow, communities must invest in th…

The Honourable Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, and the Honourable John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, today announced they would welcome United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) representatives His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and His Excellency Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, in Ottawa on September 27 and 28, 2016.

On August 23rd in St. John’s provincial court, a judge ordered Vale Newfoundland and Labrador Limited to pay $30K in penalties after the company pleaded guilty to a violation of the federal Fisheries Act. The violation relates to a March 2013 incident …

Canada has officially ratified an international treaty that seeks to eliminate child labour and ensure children do not leave school to join the workforce full time.

The Honorable MaryAnn Mihychuk, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Lab…

André Roy, one of the two winners of the 2016 Tremplin competition-a yearly contest organized by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in collaboration with Radio-Canada-will complete his second day of shooting on Wednesday, July 13, in Dieppe, New Brunswick. The film is Roy’s second professional documentary and will take a total of five days to shoot. Journalists are invited to join the filmmaker at the shoot on the 13th.

The Honourable Wayne Easter, Member of Parliament for Malpeque, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and on behalf of …

Investing in infrastructure is vital to creating middle class jobs today and sustained economic growth for years to come. Modern, efficient community infrastructure contributes to a high quality of life by helping connect people to jobs, improve water …

The Government of Canada supports the Société d’histoire de Sherbrooke

The Royal Canadian Navy is leading a fleet of 11 ships and approximately 25 aircraft from Canada, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States in anti-submarine warfare drills over the next two weeks. The training activity known as CUTLASS …

Colin Fraser, Member of Parliament for West Nova, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), will make an announcemen…

We hear it all the time when it comes to getting exercise: “Just get moving,” or “take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator,” but do those short bursts of energy really make a difference in our overall fitness levels? For those who are used to seeing friends and colleagues going to the gym for hours on end or running long distances, a shorter time for exercise done at home (or at work) may seem too good to be true. But it’s not, say many exercise gurus, including the author of the book One-Minute Workout and a new study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

According to a press release issued today:

“Interval training offers a convenient way to fit exercise into your life, rather than having to structure your life around exercise,” says Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster and lead author on the study. “Stair climbing is a form of exercise anyone can do in their own home, after work or during the lunch hour,” says “This research takes interval training out of the lab and makes it accessible to everyone.”

The researchers performed a small 6-week study (31women) that evaluated two protocols. The women were sedentary before beginning the study. Sessions took place three times a week and took about 30 minutes total over the course of a week, 10 minutes per session for warm up, cool down, and recovery.

© Dirima | Dreamstime.com – Sporty woman running and climbing stairs

The first experiment had subjects performing three 20-second sessions of continuous stair climbing at maximum ability (“all-out”) compared with subjects who exercised with the same intensity but on exercise bikes. In the second experiment, the participants vigorously climbed up and down one single flight of stairs for 60 seconds. According to the press release, both protocols increased the participants’ cardiorespiratory fitness.  (Note: I was unable to find the study online so I can’t be more specific with these findings). Considering how tiring it can be to climb stairs, this doesn’t seem to be a stretch.

But not everyone has stairs at home, so if doing stairs isn’t your thing, there are other options that may prove equally effective. A new iBook called How to Watch TV and Get Fit, 3 Minutes at a Time, by Debbie Rahman, presents you with a 12-week program that works on helping your cardio, strength, and balance. The book’s website has a few sample 3 minute exercise videos (Disclosure: I recently met the art director of this project). Again, this approach may seem too good to be true, but if you’re trying to squeeze some exercise into your life but something more structured isn’t going to work, a program like this could be the answer.

So whichever approach you use, it’s good to know that if you don’t have the time or the desire to commit to joining a gym or taking part in lengthy time consuming exercise programs, there is still hope.

The Government of Canada is committed to improving the health and well-being of Canadians by investing in research that will improve their quality of life. To honour this commitment, the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, accompanied by Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, today announced that the Government of Canada will invest $10 million over seven years to fund the research of Vincenzo Di Marzo at Université Laval. A globally renowned biochemist and pharmacologist from Italy, Di Marzo will become a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) dedicated to studying the relationship between neurochemical signalling and metabolic health.

The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that the process for appointing judges to superior courts is open, transparent and accountable to Canadians, and promotes greater diversity on the bench.

Investing in local infrastructure helps create jobs while improving Northern Canadians’ quality of life. The governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories are working together to provide residents and businesses with modern, reliable and sustaina…

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) wishes to advise all users of restricted access to the Burlington Canal Lift Bridge from August 8 to 26, 2016.

Media are invited to attend the military burial of Private Kenneth Donald Duncanson on September 14, 2016, at Adegem Canadian War Cemetery in Belgium. In attendance will be members of Private Duncanson’s family, along with representatives from the Gove…

I am very pleased to be joining you here today. Forums like these speak to the value of having inclusive dialogue about pipeline safety, between regulators, companies, agencies, environmental organizations and citizens – what it means for each of us, w…

The Competition Bureau has reached an agreement with pharmaceutical wholesaler McKesson Corporation related to its acquisition of pharmaceutical retailer Rexall Health.

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the Sommets du cinéma d’animation are joining forces to present a series of Artists’ Talks on animation at the Cinémathèque québécoise, beginning Thursday, November 24, with “Une journée avec Diane Obomsawin.” In the months to come, animation filmmakers Janice Nadeau, Eva Cvijanovic, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre, Theodore Ushev and Torill Kove will take turns giving the public a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their most recent productions. Audiences will have a rare opportunity to explore these artists’ creative processes and talk to them about their approach, inspiration and techniques.

Members of the media are invited to attend an important infrastructure announcement with the Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament for Kings–Hants, on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities; and Keith Irving, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Kings South, on behalf of the Honourable Geoff MacLellan, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal for Nova Scotia.

Investments in sustainable infrastructure reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contribute to a clean growth economy and strengthen the middle class by ensuring communities are healthy and productive places to live.

In a decision dated June 23, 2016, Canada’s Federal Court dismissed a constitutional challenge brought against the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB), an agency created by the federal government to protect consumers from excessively priced p…

I’m honestly not trying to be mean, but that was the thought that went through my mind when I read the recently published study, Log Often, Lose More: Electronic Dietary Self‐Monitoring for Weight Loss which purports to explore the relationship between food diary use and weight loss.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge proponent of using a food diary. Whether it’s tracking calories, carbohydrates, macros, or whatever, there’s ample evidence to suggest that tracking helps to maintain new behaviours, but is that what this study showed?

Well it did show that those keeping a food diary and using it more often had greater weight loss during a 24 week behavioural weight loss intervention.

So what’s my problem?

I have two (well, two related to this study, clearly many overall).

The first is that the food tracker utilized was web based, and not a smartphone app. It’s a minor quibble, but nonetheless, app based food diaries are the norm, why not use them? Given we have our phones wherever we go, but not our desktops and laptops, that might make a real difference to the percentage of people using them (and yes, I realize there are web browsers on phones, but that’s just not the same).

I’m guessing the reason a smartphone app wasn’t used is that using one would not have provided the researchers with the minutes users spent tracking, which brings me to my second, and more significant, concern.

Apparently, in the first month, successful users (those who ultimately lost more than 5% of their presenting weights) were shown to be using that web based food diary 23-24 minutes daily. And though some of that is likely consequent to learning curve, by month 6 it was still taking them 15-16 minutes of effort to record their daily meals and snacks.

Those are extremely high numbers. Having once done a stretch of 3 years of not missing a single day’s use of, first a web based, and then an app based food diary, I can tell you that in short order, it really shouldn’t take longer than 2-3 minutes daily to track. The learning curve is at most 2-3 weeks, and once beyond that, useful food diaries keep track of your entered meals and snacks such that re-entering them is a simple as a click.

Or at least that’s how it should be.

Which means that the users in this study were either taught the world’s least efficient means of keeping a food diary, or the web interface utilized was just awful (or both).

Either way, I’m not sure how the results of this study help much. Because while I’m definitely a believer when it comes to the benefits of food diary use, it would seem to me that what this study actually measured are the outcomes of people so incredibly dedicated to their behaviour change efforts, that they bothered putting up with an awful and time consuming food diary for 6 months.

[for some expanded thoughts from me on keeping a food diary, here’s a piece I wrote for Greatist a number of years ago, and for full disclosure, I’m currently closing in on beta-testing our office’s own food diary and behaviour change smartphone app]

       

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Chief Medical Officer of Headspace, talks about the most popular mediation app out there.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command is ready to track Santa for the 61st year, and media are invited to participate in a variety of ways, to include conducting live interviews on Dec. 24 with senior NORAD officials.

The series, Westworld, revolves around a futuristic theme park — populated by artificially intelligent human-like robots.

The Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) held multiple mental health awareness events across Canada today, in support of the Bell Let’s Talk campaign against stigma surrounding mental illness.

In today’s world, I think we all struggle to keep pace with rapid technological and social change. Indeed, technological advances have changed our world, but more importantly they have also changed the expectations of the Canadians I serve and the cons…

Alaina Lockhart, Member of Parliament for Fundy Royal, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, will be in Quispamsis on T…

Colin Fraser, Member of Parliament for West Nova, today announced a $371,953 contribution, through ACOA’s Innovative Communities Fund, to assist the Town of Annapolis Royal to undertake infrastructure enhancements to the downtown waterfront.

The Government of Canada is investing $100,000 to complete vital infrastructure upgrades to Oakley Village Square in the Town of Bracebridge.

Health Canada officials will hold a technical briefing on Food Guide revisions following the Federal Health Minister’s announcement in Montreal.