Health committee  Very briefly, to respect the time limit, we also support the stretch tax credit and have made that recommendation to the finance committee.

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. It's very important, because basically self-management rests on how you engage with people living with chronic disease, and the longer you can keep them healthy, the less costs will increase and the less human misery will result as a result o

Health committee  We haven't had any direct contact with agricultural producers. On occasion we will work with food producers in certain joint ventures, but we are concerned by the fact, as Dr. Sharma has mentioned, that fruit and vegetables are often prohibitively expensive, particularly in rural

Health committee  I could pretend that it was, but sadly, it's not.

Health committee  Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee. On behalf of the Canadian Diabetes Association, thank you so much for inviting us here today. We are very pleased to join in this discussion concerning those chronic diseases related to aging. Given Canada's aging popula

Health committee  Unfortunately, in terms of peer countries, OECD countries, we have a very high rate of diabetes, and we also have the third-highest rate of mortality from diabetes amongst those countries. We have a significant problem in terms of prevalence and also diabetes-related mortality.

Health committee  Certainly having a family history of diabetes is a distinct risk factor that people should be made aware of. This is particularly for people who have family members with undiagnosed diabetes. As my colleague mentioned a moment ago, approximately a million Canadians are living w

Health committee  You have to have what's called an A1C level. It's a measurement of basically the amount of sugar in your blood over a period of time. It has to be above or below a certain threshold, and once it's above a certain threshold you will probably be diagnosed with what's called pre-dia

Health committee  In terms of people who live with diabetes, especially people who use insulin to manage their diabetes, it's actually quite important for people to be able to see the carbohydrate content of the food they're about to consume. So certainly, measures that would make it easier for pe

Health committee  No--

Health committee  No. As we mentioned in our presentation, about 80% to 90% of people with type 2 diabetes, which includes an increasing incidence of children with type 2 diabetes--it was previously diagnosed only in adults--are either overweight or obese. But certainly, there are other high-ris

Health committee  Yes. You are correct. We're going to be releasing a report in about two months that will show provincial breakdowns across the country. We've released a lot of that data already, and we'll be releasing further data next week in the prairies about specific prevalence in those juri

Health committee  Certainly, we were very pleased to see that declaration. There is an epidemic of obesity in this country, as well as people who are overweight. I think it's important to include both of those things. While we were certainly pleased to see a commitment to reduce obesity, particul

Health committee  Thank you very much for the question. With regard to your first question, in terms of labelling, to my knowledge we don't have an official position on labelling for packaged foods over and above what we said leading up to the regulations in 2005. We were supportive of those regu

Health committee  Yes. I have just one more paragraph. Thank you. Increasing the percentage of Canadians achieving a healthy weight will not be easy. In fact, it will require widespread personal and societal change as well as significant shifts in the approach by governments and the private secto