Question Period Note: Addressing Diabetes in Canada

Diabetes is a serious chronic disease, and one of the most common chronic diseases affecting people in Canada. Diabetes poses many challenges for those living with the disease, their families, and communities, and has various implications for health systems. It is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation.

The Government recognizes the importance of helping people in Canada reduce their risk of developing chronic diseases, including diabetes.
In October 2022, the Framework for Diabetes in Canada was tabled in Parliament. This Framework marks an important milestone in our efforts to better support and collaborate with those impacted by diabetes in Canada.
We continue to advance activities to address diabetes. We are investing in community-based initiatives that help prevent chronic diseases, including diabetes, by promoting physical activity, healthy eating, and tobacco prevention and cessation. We are also supporting research to address causes, prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of all types of diabetes.
Diabetes is a complex disease, and there is still significant work ahead to ensure better health outcomes for people living with diabetes in Canada. As we mark Diabetes Awareness month in Canada, we will continue to work closely with the wide range of partners active in this area to promote awareness and to advance our collective efforts.
IF PRESSED ON GOVERNMENT OF CANADA INVESTMENTS FOR DIABETES PREVENTION IN CANADA:
The Government of Canada is actively investing in addressing diabetes in Canada.
Through Budget 2021, we are investing $25 million over five years in research, surveillance and prevention and have launched the Framework for Diabetes in Canada.
These investments include up to $15 million through the Canadian Institute for Health Research, and a matching $15 million from the diabetes research foundation JDRF Canada and its donors, to better understand the causes of type 1 diabetes.
In November 2022, we launched the Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Challenge to propose and develop innovative concepts that address the barriers to prevention.
We are also investing close to $20 million annually in community-based projects that promote healthy behaviours and which create environments that can help prevent diabetes and are known to support better health.
In June 2023, we announced close to $1 million in funding over three years for Diabetes Canada to implement activities, such as convening partners and stakeholders and sharing innovative and best practices, to help address diabetes in Canada.

Healthy behaviours (e.g., healthy eating and physical activity) and addressing the determinants of health that influence one’s ability to implement healthy behaviours can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and prevent negative diabetes-related health outcomes.
Evidence demonstrates that there is an increased risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 (both hospitalization and mortality) among people in Canada with type 2 diabetes and those who are obese. COVID-19 has also resulted in a disproportionate impact on specific sub-groups of the population, many of whom are at greater risk of suffering from the health, social and economic effects of the pandemic.
Government of Canada
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) undertakes data collection and analysis of chronic diseases and their risk and protective factors, strengthens collaborations to better track disease trends and risks, and supports the development of policy and program interventions and prevention guidelines for primary care.
PHAC also supports community-based initiatives to improve healthy behaviours and address health inequalities among priority populations at greater risk of developing chronic diseases. In particular, PHAC’s Healthy Canadians and Communities Fund invests approximately $20 million annually and leverages additional funding from partners to support projects that focus on behavioural risk factors, including physical inactivity, less nutritious patterns of eating and tobacco use that are associated with chronic diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. It also supports projects that create physical and social environments that are known to support better health among people in Canada.
To help people in Canada identify their risk of type 2 diabetes and how they can reduce it, PHAC developed CANRISK, the Canadian diabetes risk questionnaire. CANRISK is accessible through partnerships with Diabetes Canada, health authorities in provinces and territories across Canada, major drug stores such as Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart (under the Pharmaprix banner in Quebec), Rexall and Pharmasave, and others.
Through Budget 2021, the Government of Canada is investing $25 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, in diabetes research (including type 1 diabetes), surveillance and prevention, and launched the Framework for Diabetes in Canada. This investment included recommitting to JDRF Canada (formerly Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) - CIHR (Canadian Institute for Health Research) Partnership to Defeat Diabetes, which is jointly investing $30 million in research targeting type 1 diabetes.
Also through a Budget 2021 investment of $10 million over five years, PHAC, in partnership with Impact Canada (Privy Council Office), launched the Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Challenge in November 2022. This Challenge seeks to attract innovators to develop and implement community-designed approaches that can address the determinants of health and social barriers that can lead to an elevated risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
In June 2023, PHAC announced $998,450 in funding over three years for Diabetes Canada to work with key partners to develop an inventory of successful diabetes programs, interventions, and projects to support the subsequent dissemination, adoption, and customization of these initiatives across the country. Diabetes Canada will advance the Framework for Diabetes in Canada by convening individuals living with diabetes, key leaders in public health, diabetes care and education, as well as cultural leaders and organizations, to share innovative and best practices to identify, prevent, and manage diabetes.
Parliament
The National Framework for Diabetes Act received Royal Assent on June 29, 2021. Following extensive engagement with key stakeholders and Indigenous partners, the Framework for Diabetes in Canada (Framework) was tabled by the Minister of Health on October 5, 2022.
The Framework provides a common policy direction to address diabetes in Canada, including for populations at elevated risk of developing diabetes, people living with diabetes and their caregivers, Indigenous populations, non-governmental organizations, health care professionals, researchers, and all levels of government. It lays the foundation for collaborative and complementary action by all sectors of society to improve access to diabetes prevention and treatment and ensure better health outcomes for people living in Canada.
An Indigenous-led engagement process that will help identify priorities and ways forward to address diabetes among Indigenous Peoples is underway with Indigenous organizations. The process is being coordinated by the National Indigenous Diabetes Association.

Diabetes is a serious, lifelong condition characterized by the body's inability to produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.
Over 3.5 million people in Canada are living with the disease and more than 200,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
There are three main types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. Other types are uncommon. Type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 90% of diabetes cases in adults in Canada. A variety of factors influence the development of type 2 diabetes, including age, genetics, modifiable lifestyle risk factors, and intersecting social, economic, and environmental determinants of health.
The onset of type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed by reducing the major modifiable risk factors, such as unhealthy diets and physical inactivity, as well as addressing the determinants of health that influence one’s ability to take action on these modifiable risk factors.
Some people in Canada, such as First Nations and Métis people, people of African descent, and South and East Asian descent, and people with lower income and education levels have higher rates of type 2 diabetes compared to the general population.