Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
My name is Dave Prowten. I'm the president and CEO of JDRF Canada. We're the leading charitable funder of type 1 diabetes in the world. I'm joined by Dr. Alanna Weisman, who is a clinician scientist and endocrinologist at Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network.
We are here to offer one key recommendation that will vastly improve the lives of Canadians who live with type 1 diabetes. It's a much-needed and long-awaited change to the disability tax credit.
Type 1 diabetes is a relentless 24-hour-a-day and seven-day-a-week disease that requires monitoring and attention. From the moment of diagnosis, a person with type 1 diabetes is reliant on insulin to stay alive. It therefore, by definition, is truly a life-sustaining therapy.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that someone living with type 1 diabetes has to make roughly 300 or more decisions per day than does someone without type 1. Do I need to eat? Do I not need to eat? Do I need to eat less? Do I need to eat more? Do I need to take insulin? How much insulin do I need? Do I need to check my blood sugar? Even with vigilant management and innovative technologies, the risk of long-term complications like heart and kidney disease, and the short-term realities of dangerously low blood sugars, which can lead to confusion, coma and even death, still remain.
That is why we are asking the committee today to make things a little easier for those living with type 1 diabetes by ensuring that they have equitable access to the disability tax credit by removing or reducing the antiquated and arbitrary 14-hour-a-week requirement. It is simply the right thing to do.
Type 1 diabetes is a costly disease, not only for our health care system but also for individuals and families. Depending on which province you live in and what type of benefits package you have through your employer, it can cost Canadians with type 1 diabetes, out of pocket, up to $15,000 a year.
Previously, JDRF has advocated for reducing the number of hours needed to qualify for the DTC from 14 to 10, which was also proposed in the fairness for persons with disabilities act. The disability advisory committee appointed by the Minister of National Revenue actually proposed an even better solution, that qualification be automatic for all Canadians who need life-sustaining therapy, including insulin.
We implore the committee to amend the budget implementation act and call for either a removal of the 14-hour requirement entirely or, alternatively, a reduction in the hours to seven, so that more Canadians with type 1 diabetes can qualify.
To speak more on the disability tax credit, I will turn things over to Dr. Weisman.