Those are certainly ideas that Diabetes Canada is in support of our looking into further, because we know that the impact of consuming sugary drinks can increase the risk of even a person of a normal BMI developing type 2 diabetes. They've consumed too much in certain populations and they can really increase the risk of those people developing chronic diseases, including diabetes. I think that a school nutrition program is also an excellent thing for us to consider because we have to make healthy foods available to everyone in Canada.
In terms of supporting the unique needs of indigenous people, we had a working group look specifically at those unique needs as part of developing our diabetes 360° strategy. In addition, I would echo Dr. Whiteside's call that we implement the health-related recommendations in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report. We also need to ensure that we enable any indigenous nation or group that wishes to embrace or adopt a diabetes strategy for themselves to do so. It would be the approach of diabetes 360° when implemented to partner with any groups or nations wishing to embrace that in order to support them in doing so.
I think that some of the recommendations we would propose for the general population will really help address some of the key issues that are experienced disproportionately by indigenous nations. For example, many people in indigenous communities are unable to access medical care physically. We can do a lot to provide them with remote-based telemedicine that can really help improve their management of diabetes, or the risk of developing it. There are a number of interventions that we can start to put in place for the whole population that will have an extra big benefit on those communities because of some of the ways they are disadvantaged right now.