National brain injury strategy

AI summary

Petitioners ask the Government of Canada to support Bill C-206 to establish a national brain injury strategy. The government responds that federal agencies fund related research and programs and will engage with the bill's sponsor.

AI summaries describe petitioners’ requests and claims. Consult the official record for the full text.

Official petition

Petition to the Government of Canada Whereas: There are approximately 165,000 new cases of brain injury annually in Canada; Health and community service providers require more education regarding the intersection of brain injury, mental health, and addiction; For every NHL player who suffers a concussion in sport, more than 5,500 Canadian women sustain the same injury from domestic violence; There were 21,824 opioid-related poisoning hospitalizations resulting in hypoxic brain injury between January 2016 and June 2020 in Canada; An estimated 60% of brain injury survivors suffer from anxiety and/or depression; The risk of suicide increases by 400% for a survivor of brain injury; Brain injury survivors face a 200% increased risk of struggling with addictions after sustaining a brain injury; Despite the federal government committing $11 billion over ten years to improve community support and mental health and/or addiction services, none are specifically targeted to brain injury; Indigenous, racialized, and marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by brain injury and face additional barriers to care, rehabilitation, and justice; Brain injury is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide and contributes significantly to the burden on Canada's health, social, and justice systems; and Survivors and families are often left to navigate fragmented systems with little to no support, leading to further deterioration in health, housing, and economic stability. We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to support Bill C-206 to develop a national strategy to support and improve brain injury awareness, prevention, and treatment, as well as the rehabilitation and recovery of persons living with a brain injury.

Government response

Response by the Minister of Health Signed by Maggie Chi Our government understands that many Canadians are impacted by brain and neurological diseases, disorders, illnesses, injuries and other health conditions, and we are committed to helping improve their quality of life by promoting programs and research that promote brain health and address brain injuries. Canada’s approach to brain health is based on collaboration and aligned efforts amongst organizations like the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and Health Canada. By working together, these organizations help advance research and national strategies for brain conditions and injuries. PHAC’s role in addressing brain health and brain injuries stems from its injury prevention and health promotion mandates, and includes public health surveillance, as well as policy, program and communications functions. PHAC investment and action on brain injuries and concussions focuses on sport and physical activity-related concussions; gender-based violence and brain injuries; and surveillance, research and knowledge mobilization on traumatic brain injuries. PHAC, Sport Canada and Provincial and Territorial Ministers have prioritized a harmonized approach to concussion awareness, prevention, detection, management and surveillance. PHAC’s activities to promote awareness of concussions include: investing in the development of Canadian Guidelines on Concussion in Sport and a Concussion Guide for Adults 65+; funding organizations to produce concussion resources for schools and health professionals; supporting concussion prevention and awareness through PHAC’s social media channels, especially during awareness events like Brain Health Month and in support of other relevant initiatives; partnering with provinces and territories to promote the annual Concussion Awareness Week, which occurs in September every year; and promoting the Concussion Detection Challenge, to seek a technology, procedure or technique that can help detect concussions based on the objective measure of clinical indicators. The winner of the Challenge was HealthTech Connex Inc., who received $1 million over two years for their project aiming to detect concussions using an artificial intelligence and machine learning data model to evaluate concussion severity. PHAC also provides $1.6M (2024-27) to Supporting Survivors of Abuse and Brain Injury through Research (SOAR) to develop resources and training for health and gender-based violence sector service providers across Canada, and to implement and test community interventions that support survivors. The Agency released Injury in Review, 2020 Edition: Spotlight on Traumatic Brain Injuries Across the Life Course and will continue to improve data collection, analyses and reporting on traumatic brain injuries, which will be made available on Health Infobase Traumatic Brain Injuries - Canada.ca. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) invests in brain injury research at universities, hospitals and other research institutions across Canada. Over the past five years, CIHR invested $68.3M in research related to traumatic brain injuries (TBI) — supporting 346 research grants and training awards — including $16.9M in 2024-25, in addition to providing funding to the Canadian Concussion Network through a five-year catalyst grant from 2019 to 2024. CIHR also funds Canada Research Chairs in TBI, including Dr. Miriam Beauchamp (Université de Montréal), the Canada Research Chair in Paediatric Traumatic Brain Injury, and Dr. Angela Colantonio (University of Toronto), who is the Canada Research Chair in Traumatic Brain Injury in Underserved Populations. Health Canada supports priority brain health research through the Canada Brain Research Fund Program, in partnership with the Brain Canada Foundation (Brain Canada). This program enables researchers across Canada to discover and improve clinical, technological, and health system solutions for brain diseases and disorders, including for brain injury conditions. Federal investments are matched dollar to dollar by charitable and private sector partners, resulting in over $450M in combined research funding being awarded since 2011. This includes over $14.6M in funding across 52 brain injury research grants. Findings from this research have been used to inform policies to protect youth while playing contact sports, and to examine new interventions for concussion treatment. Bill C-206 has not yet advanced to Second Reading in the House of Commons, and it is up to the Member of Parliament for Courtenay-Alberni, who sponsored the bill, to put it forward when it is his turn in the legislative process. Nonetheless, our Government looks forward to working with the Member of Parliament for Courtenay-Alberni on his bill, and on promoting brain health more broadly.