MP Sahota’s Brampton colleague, MP Sonia Sidhu, tabled her Private Member’s Bill, Bill C-237, to establish a national framework for diabetes. This is an important piece of legislation and would bring real benefits to Canadians all across the country, but most acutely right here in Brampton North. Watch MP Sahota advocate for increased support for individuals with diabetes or read the transcript here:

"Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to support my colleague from Brampton South on her private member's bill, Bill C-237, an act to establish a national framework for diabetes. She has done incredible work on the issue of diabetes and my fellow Brampton colleagues and I fully support and endorse her work.

This is a critical issue for the residents in my constituency, and had I been selected in the private member's lottery process, it is something I would have loved to bring forward myself. Therefore, I am extremely pleased to see the bill before the House at second reading.

The issue of diabetes is very near and dear to my heart. I make it a point to meet with JDRF's Kids for a Cure each year to listen to their suggestions and to advocate for what the Government of Canada can do better to help.

I have seen the issue first-hand, as my childhood best friend suffered from type 1 diabetes. Throughout his childhood, he had many struggles, and I could not understand at the time why he had to take them on. Into his adult years, many more obstacles faced him. This story did not end well: We lost him all too soon a few years back because of complications from this terrible disease.

My maternal grandmother also passed because of complications from diabetes, and my mother suffers from type 2 diabetes. Thus, I am predisposed to becoming the next victim of this terrible disease. I already had gestational diabetes during my pregnancy with my son, something I find very hard to talk about since I feel there is a stigma attached to having diabetes. People feel it is somehow their fault. As a mother, I know mothers do not want to do anything to affect the health and well-being of their children.

Canada has accomplished many incredible things in the medical field, and by far our most successful is the discovery of insulin. This breakthrough was a tremendous step forward in diabetes treatment and helping to improve the quality of life of diabetics in Canada and around the world. As we get closer to the 100-year anniversary of its discovery, Canada should once again choose to be a leader in diabetes treatment and invest more in research and countermeasures to help keep our cities stronger and healthier.

Over one million people living in Ontario suffer from type 2 diabetes. The GTA alone has half of Ontario's cases, with my home city of Brampton being known as the diabetes capital of Canada. Brampton has one of the highest rates of diabetes in Ontario, with the exception of only select indigenous communities, where as many as one-third of residents suffer from this terrible disease.

It is my hope that the House will support the bill and support the call for a national framework for diabetes on behalf of my constituents of Brampton North and everyone affected by this disease.

In the last 12 years, the prevalence of diabetes in Ontario has doubled, which to most people means suffering with the disease itself and a list of complications, such as increased heart attacks, strokes, requiring dialysis and undergoing amputations. Diabetes can affect every aspect of a person's life and makes day-to-day activities more challenging. Brampton must deal with all of these complications with only one fully functional hospital and suffers from underfunding of health care from the province as compared with other cities in the province of Ontario.

It is unfortunate, but I have been witnessing my own mother's struggles with this disease for many years now, and as she suffered a heart attack recently, I know how serious the complications can become. My husband, who is a podiatrist, shares many stories of patients who must undergo amputations. I never knew how common amputations due to diabetes were.

What is even more concerning is that despite well-tested methods of prevention and management, diabetes is becoming increasingly more common in Canadian society. New data from the 2019 Diabetes Canada cost model finds that currently one-third of Canadians have either diabetes or pre-diabetes. Worse still, it found that less than 50% of all Canadians can identify less than half of the early warning signs of diabetes, and even less were able to list the health complications diabetes can cause.

This is a worrying trend, which highlights the urgency for creating a strategy to help combat the disease. The need for proper educational tools to teach people about the disease, its causes, symptoms and treatments is absolutely clear. If we can push through the right policies and programs, we can reduce the prevalence of diabetes in our communities and keep higher-risk individuals healthy. Canada needs a national framework for diabetes and it needs one now.

Here are the facts. We already know the risk factors that increase the likelihood of developing diabetes.

Obesity, spurred on by unhealthy eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle, plays a significant part in diabetes onset. The likelihood for developing diabetes is more than seven times higher among obese individuals and three times higher among overweight individuals, as determined by a person's BMI.

We also know that socio-economic factors play a big part in the lived experience of having diabetes. Individuals with lower incomes are more likely to suffer complications from the disease and are less likely to regularly see their doctors, compared to those with higher incomes.

We know that pregnant women with diabetes are more likely to have suffered a number of complications with their pregnancies, such as high blood pressure or obstructed births and stillbirths. More pregnant women should be making use of specialist prenatal and obstetrical care, but do not know. There is not enough research and I do not know why.

We also know that ethnic background plays a role, which we just cannot ignore, in determining which communities are more likely to develop this disease. Diabetes is more common in certain ethnic groups, including people of indigenous, South Asian, African and Hispanic descent. When we look at patterns of diabetes in Ontario, the data fit with where these higher-risk communities live.

The GTA and particularly Brampton have high rates of ethnic diversity and we are also seeing higher rates of diabetes. This genetic susceptibility increases the risk of diabetes onset, even for those at a younger age and at lower BMIs, meaning one could be a skinny diabetic. Making the need for community-tailored educational campaigns is that much more important. People might be at higher risk and never even know it, let alone know what steps to take to mitigate these risks.

I would like to take a moment to recognize the great work done by a local community advocate Dr. Bajaj and the Stop Diabetes Foundation. The organization has taken on two main objectives: one, to decrease the burden of diabetes afflicting our society, through community-based education on preventative lifestyle; and, two, to increase the longevity of patients living with diabetes, by using a combination of medically proven treatments and lifestyle regimen.

Education and awareness must be done with social and cultural context taken into consideration. By keeping the status quo and not investing in creating a national framework, we are allowing incident rates to rise for a disease that is proven to be preventable in certain circumstances with the proper educational campaigns, tools and policies.

The bill has many recommendations. Experts suggest that helping to address educational gaps could prevent diabetes onset. Passing the bill will help promote information and knowledge sharing in relation to diabetes prevention and treatment, which is absolutely vital. We can teach people how to create healthier lifestyles through balanced diets and exercise, and explain how these changes will decrease their risk for diabetes.

These educational campaigns can and should be tailored for each region and for specific cultural groups to address our most vulnerable communities that are most at risk due to genetic predispositions. We need to give people the tools to better understand and manage their own health so they can become more proactive in diabetes prevention.

The bill also specifically calls for promoting research and improving data collection on diabetes prevention and treatment when it comes to information gaps. The necessity for filling them is clear. Determining why some pregnant women with diabetes are not receiving special prenatal and obstetrical care is vital to ensuring they have access to these resources."