No. The indigenous communities are three to five times more likely to develop diabetes.
To give you a sense of this problem related to complications, I mentioned there is an amputation every four hours in Ontario because of untreated diabetic foot ulcers. In the northern regions of Ontario, the amputation rate is much higher.
The reason is exactly as Ms. Tremblay has indicated. The access to care is highly limited and the intervention early enough to prevent these amputations simply doesn't exist. This is a huge problem, not just in Ontario, but in the northern regions of all the provinces and territories.
Alberta is probably the furthest ahead of the provinces. They have instituted a province-wide foot care program for individuals with diabetes, with particular emphasis on the indigenous communities. They have set up hubs of aggressive treatment centres for diabetic foot ulcers throughout the province.
Again, there are examples in Canada where this problem is being addressed more aggressively. I think a national diabetes strategy would enable the sharing of some of these better and best practices province by province to improve these outcomes.