Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation is a national volunteer-based charity, led and supported by more than 125,000 volunteers across the country and close to two million donors. The aim of the foundation is to create healthy lives free of heart disease and stroke. We do this in three ways: the advancement of research, the promotion of healthy living, and advocacy work as well.
Despite an impressive 75% reduction in the death rate from heart disease and stroke over the last 60 years, every seven minutes a Canadian still dies from heart disease and stroke, and that's unacceptable. It amounts to more than 66,000 deaths per year. Heart disease and stroke is the leading cause of hospitalizations and the second leading cause of death in Canada. We have a lot more work to do. There's no doubt about it.
The foundation is proposing to work with the federal government on solutions that are consistent with the themes proposed by the finance minister for the 2016 pre-budget consultations—in particular, creating economic growth while ensuring our most vulnerable do not get left behind. Specifically, we're seeking to partner with the federal government to do two things: one, protect Canada's children by adopting a manufacturers' levy on sugary drinks; and two, invest in science by providing $30 million annually to support heart disease and stroke research in Canada.
To help protect Canadian children, we're recommending that the federal government adopt a manufacturers' levy on sugary drinks. Ideally, this tax should include various elements or best practices. It should be an excise tax based on volume, should increase according to the amount of sugar in the drinks, should be visible at the point of purchase, and should include a broad range of sugary drinks including fruit juices, which have just as much or more sugar than soda pop. A federal levy of 5¢ per 100 millilitres on sugary drinks, sugar-sweetened beverages, would raise almost $2 billion in revenue for the government, which is much needed revenue at this point in time.
Ideally, a portion of this new revenue stream would be redirected toward subsidizing healthy living initiatives such as a national healthy lunch program for students. There is strong and growing evidence that sugary drink taxation is working. In Mexico, for instance, a one peso per ounce, or 10%, excise tax on sugary drink purchases led to a 12% reduction in sugary drink purchases and as high as a 17% reduction among low-income people. This can work in Canada, too, to improve health and raise much-needed revenue.
Our second request deals with research. There are four areas that require investment: heart failure, creating capacity for the future, heart research for women, and nutrition. The foundation has a tradition of working with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and leading universities and hospitals to fund the best researchers across the country.
In June 2013, the Heart and Stroke Foundation launched the universities and hospitals initiative, a unique collaboration in which the HSF committed to providing $30 million annually in heart disease and stroke research funding to Canada's top 20 leading universities and hospitals. Unfortunately, despite this commitment, the reality is that Canada is falling behind in high-impact heart disease and stroke research. Applications to CIHR in all fields of research have increased by 110% between 2000 and 2010, yet in heart disease and stroke research, it's only increased by 22%. As well, and more worrisome, the number of early investigators or new researchers in the field has reduced by 50% between 2002 and 2010, so we need more investment to encourage young researchers into heart disease and stroke.
What's the opportunity here? In addition to saving lives and improving Canadians' quality of life, this investment would create high-value jobs—70% of funds that go to research would go toward job creation. It would also help retain young researchers in the field. Finally, it would lead to as high as an almost 40% return on investment. This means that an investment in heart disease and stroke research could be fully recouped by the government within two years.
Mr. Chair, thank you for the time. I look forward to questions and discussion with the honourable members.
Thank you.