Physical activity: What Canada’s doing

This document is a policy framework for physical activity in Canada and was released in 2018 by federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for sport, physical activity and recreation. Indigenous perspectives informed the development of the Common Vision, and multi-sector consultations were conducted.

The Common Vision guides governments, organizations, communities and leaders from across sectors to collaborate in supporting Canadians towards active lifestyles. It focuses on physical activity and its relationship to sport, recreation, health, as well as other relevant policy areas.

This document sets out 6 areas of focus:

1. cultural norms
2. spaces and places
3. public engagement
4. partnerships
5. leadership and learning
6. progress

The document is for everyone involved in promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary living in Canada. Sedentary behaviour refers to activities that use very little energy like sitting, reclining or lying down.

Learn more:

• A Common Vision for Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Sedentary Living in Canada: Let’s Get Moving

In 2023, the Government of Canada hosted a series of healthy living roundtables to explore how COVID-19 impacted healthy living in Canada. These focused on physical activity and healthy eating. The roundtables brought together participants from many sectors and regions to discuss possibilities for a healthier future.

These roundtables aligned with the 5-year anniversary of A Common Vision for Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Sedentary Living in Canada: Let’s Get Moving.

The roundtable topics were based on the broad areas of focus of A Common Vision and included:

• partnership and alliance building
  • recognizing how COVID-19 pandemic shifts changed how people can work together to support healthy living
• built environment and active transportation
  • exploring how the pandemic affected connections between the built environment and healthy living
• public engagement and knowledge mobilization
  • identifying how to use new and increasingly popular digital tools and platforms to involve people and share health information in clear ways
• healthy living, with a focus on equity-deserving populations
  • understanding what groups faced greater barriers to physical activity and healthy eating during the pandemic, and how to help reduce  barriers
• creating a cultural norm of physical activity and healthy eating
  • making healthy habits a natural part of post-pandemic daily life

These roundtables advanced the federal commitment to support A Common Vision. It identified areas for action to help everyone in Canada be active and live healthier lives. Key learnings from the roundtables are summarized in a what we heard report.

Learn more:

• What We Heard: 2023 Roundtables on Healthy Living in Canada
• A Common Vision for Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Sedentary Living in Canada: Let’s Get Moving

In 2024, the Government of Canada hosted a Ministerial Stakeholder Forum on Physical Activity with key physical activity-related partners and organizations in Canada. The forum was held to share current initiatives, priorities and perspectives related to physical activity.

Participants shared the importance of increased awareness of healthy living and physical activity and its associated benefits. This included the role that physical activity can play in the prevention or delay of chronic disease, disability and injury.  

Lessons learned will be used to help inform programs and policies. It will also help identify new ways of working together to increase the overall impact of physical activity initiatives.

Close collaboration with all levels of government is a top priority of the Government of Canada.

Physical activity and sport are shared responsibilities across federal, provincial and territorial (FPT) governments. Responsibility for recreation rests with provincial and territorial governments.

Decisions and actions to advance physical activity occur through 2 FPT groups, which are the:

1. Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation Council
2. Physical Activity and Recreation Committee

Within these committees, governments work together to:

• share information
• coordinate policy development
• discuss new ways to collaborate
• put into effect joint policy initiatives in the areas of sport, physical activity and recreation

The FPT ministers responsible for these areas set policies on physical activity, sport and recreation.

Learn more:  

• Canadian Sport Policy
• Creating a Healthier Canada: Making Prevention a Priority
• Curbing Childhood Obesity: A Federal, Provincial and Territorial Framework for Action to Promote Healthy Weights
• A Common Vision for Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Sedentary Living in Canada: Let’s Get Moving
• A Framework for Recreation in Canada 2015: Pathways to Wellbeing (Canadian Parks and Recreation Association, Interprovincial Sport and Recreation Council)

We invest about $20 million each year through the Healthy Canadians and Communities Fund. This helps improve healthy living behaviours among people living in Canada by encouraging:

• healthy eating
• physical activity
• tobacco prevention and cessation (quitting smoking)

The fund promotes these behaviours among populations at greater risk of chronic diseases, such as:

• cancer
• diabetes
• cardiovascular disease

Funded projects focus on:

• supporting healthy behaviour changes
• building physical and social environments that enable better health
• supporting projects that align with A Common Vision for increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary living in Canada: Let's Get Moving

Learn more:

• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Healthy Canadians and Communities Fund
• A Common Vision for Increasing Physical Activity and Reducing Sedentary Living in Canada: Let’s Get Moving

The Government of Canada has provided funding to support ParticipACTION’s Let’s Get Moving initiative. The initiative helps people who are less active get moving, with extra support for groups that don’t have the same opportunities.

Activities include:

• a national public education campaign
• annual report cards on physical activity
• an annual community-based physical activity challenge

Learn more:

• Let’s Get Moving Initiative (ParticipACTION)

• Sport Support Program
• Athlete Assistance Program
• PaRx Program: Stay active with doctor-prescribed visits to national park2 (BC Parks Foundation)