iStock photo
iStock photo

(Submitted by Denise Wong) We guzzle them down by the can and by the bottle. Now, the Canadian Diabetes Association is hoping to make sugary drinks an election issue.
The group is making a rare political push to have us pony up a little more for things like pop and fruit juice.
Serge Corbeil is the director of government relations and advocacy for BC and Alberta. He points out pop and other sugary drinks contribute not only to obesity, but also type 2 diabetes and huge long-term health care costs.
The association wants to see a tax placed on those drinks, a national pharmacare program established, and the disability tax credit expanded to include all Canadians with type 1 diabetes.
It hasn’t decided what the tax would look like.

“There are a number of options out there. Different countries already have taxes — Mexico, for example, where it has had a very positive outcome there. France has one, as well,” says Corbeil.

“Some people… might not like it. But we know from what we’ve seen so far, in the context of the federal election, we’ve received lots of very postive feedback.

I think people are starting to be more cognizant of the fact that there is over-consumption of sugar in Canada and we know that a lot of that consumption comes from all of the types of sugar-sweetened beverages that are out there.

“[We should put] a price on that to make sure that later on, the massive health care costs that are attributed to people being overweight or obese [because of] sugar-sweetened beverages [are mitigated]. It does clearly contribute to type 2 diabetes, and we know it’s very expensive. We believe that people in a majority would agree with such a tax.”

The association hasn’t gotten a positive answer from any of the parties so far. It’s making the same call to the BC government as it prepares its 2016 budget.
Part of the provincial pitch is allocating at least six per cent of the Health Ministry’s budget for promoting health and preventing chronic diseases.