Obesity Canada’s federal pre-budget submission calls on Budget 2026 to recognize obesity as a chronic disease, measure it properly, coordinate action, and invest in the research needed to improve care.
By Ian Patton, PhD, Director of Advocacy & Public Engagement
There are moments in advocacy that feel technical from the outside.
A federal pre-budget submission is one of them.
It sounds like paperwork. A deadline. A PDF sent into a parliamentary process most Canadians will never follow closely.
But behind this submission are millions of people living with obesity who have been told, in one way or another, that their health is a matter of personal willpower. Behind it are people who have delayed care because they expected judgment. People who were offered shame instead of support. People navigating a healthcare system that still does not consistently treat obesity like the complex chronic disease the science tells us it is.
That is why Obesity Canada made a federal pre-budget submission ahead of Budget 2026.
Because Canada is already paying the price for inaction. People living with obesity are paying for it in their health, their dignity, their income, their access to care, and their trust in systems that should be there to support them. Our healthcare system and economy are paying it too.
In 2023, nearly one in three Canadians were living with obesity. The estimated cost of inaction reached $27.6 billion, including $5.9 billion in direct healthcare costs and $21.7 billion in indirect costs linked to reduced workforce participation, lower earnings, disability, and premature mortality. Governments also lost an estimated $5.1 billion in tax revenue.
Those numbers point to a much larger truth: Canada is still treating obesity as an individual problem when the evidence shows it is a chronic disease with system-wide impacts.
This is not something at the margins of healthcare. This is one of the most prevalent and costly chronic diseases in Canada. Yet our policies, systems, and public conversations have not caught up.
That needs to change.
In our submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, Obesity Canada made four practical recommendations for Budget 2026:
First, we are calling on the federal government to formally recognize obesity as a chronic disease and direct Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada to align federal policies, programs, and communications with that recognition.
Recognition shapes what governments measure, fund, prioritize, and communicate. When obesity is treated as a personal choice instead of a chronic disease, people are left with blame instead of care. Systems stay fragmented. Stigma goes unchallenged. Evidence-based treatment remains out of reach for too many.
Second, we are asking the government to include obesity in the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System.
Right now, Canada measures and tracks important data on 20 chronic diseases, yet it does not include the most prevalent and impactful chronic disease: obesity. That means we’re trying to manage one of the most prevalent chronic diseases without the full picture. Obesity is an upstream disease that is correlated to almost all of the conditions Canada’s Chronic Disease Surveillance System does track.
If we want to be serious about understanding chronic disease in Canada so we can make decisions to improve the health of Canadians, we need to include data on the chronic disease that has the biggest impact. Better data would help us understand trends, identify inequities, evaluate interventions, and build more accountable policy across the country.
Third, we are calling for a federal roundtable on obesity, led by Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Canada has world-class obesity researchers, clinical guidance, healthcare professionals, advocates, and people with lived experience. But across government, obesity is still discussed and addressed using different definitions, outdated language, and inconsistent understandings of what obesity is.
A federal roundtable would help bring together the relevant agencies, departments, experts, and organizations needed to align federal policy and communication with the current, evidence-based understanding of obesity as a chronic disease. It would create space to identify practical next steps on chronic disease recognition, access to care and treatment, surveillance, stigma, and prevention, while ensuring federal action is guided by current best practices and the lived experience of people living with obesity.
Fourth, we are asking for dedicated federal investment in obesity research and innovation through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Canada has helped lead the world in obesity science. But leadership cannot be sustained without investment. We need research that advances prevention, treatment, health system delivery, long-term outcomes, and stigma reduction. We also need research that includes people living with obesity and reflects the realities of care across this country.
These recommendations are not everything Canada needs to do on obesity. No single budget can fix decades of misunderstanding, stigma, and lack of policy.
But Budget 2026 can take the foundational steps.
Recognize obesity. Measure it properly. Bring the right people together. Invest in the research and innovation needed to improve care.
That is a reasonable ask. It is also an urgent one.
People living with obesity have been asked to carry the weight of a system that was never built to understand them. We have asked individuals to “try harder” while ignoring biology, environment, access to care, medication, mental health, income, stigma, and the many other factors that shape health.
We can do better than that.
And we should expect our governments to do better too.
You can read Obesity Canada’s full submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance here.
If this issue matters to you, now is a good time to say so.
Reach out to your Member of Parliament. Tell them that obesity is a chronic disease. Tell them that people living with obesity deserve evidence-informed care without shame or blame. Tell them that federal policy needs to reflect the science, the economic reality, and the lived experiences of millions of Canadians.
Budget decisions may happen in Ottawa, but the impacts are felt in exam rooms, workplaces, families, and communities across the country.
This is an opportunity to help Canada catch up to science, and to build a system that sees people living with obesity as people first.
