2026-05-27 from benefitsandpensionsmonitor.com
Canada loses an estimated $27.6bn annually to obesity, according to a 2025 study in BMC Public Health, including $5.9bn in direct health care costs, $21.7bn in lost workforce participation, and $5.1bn in foregone tax revenue.
The federal government still does not formally recognise obesity as a chronic disease.
Obesity Canada submitted four recommendations to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance ahead of Budget 2026, calling on Ottawa to close that gap through formal disease recognition, national surveillance, coordinated policy, and dedicated research funding.
Nearly 33 percent of Canadians were living with obesity in 2023, up approximately eight percentage points since 2009, according to a 2025 study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
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