Celiac patients granted tax benefits in 2026 federal budget

Thursday's federal budget includes a break for those with above-average medical expenses, including people with celiac disease. They'll be able to claim $1,000 for gluten-free food expenses without having to document the extra costs. We're joined now by Spencer Sandor, chair of the Advocacy Committee of Celiac Canada. So first of all, your reaction to that news in the federal budget. You know, we're really excited to have this announcement. This is something that Celiac Canada, our volunteers in our community, have been asking for for many years. Well, why have you been advocating for this? Well, I think in Canada, we all know we're seeing people having a hard time with food affordability. For people with celiac, that is even more challenging. The only treatment for celiac disease right now is a lifelong gluten-free diet. And the cost of that gluten-free food can be two to five times as much as the regular gluten-containing food. So that is a significant barrier, not just to food affordability, but to health outcomes for For families, and in fact, we know that for families with at least one person who has celiac disease, about half of them are struggling with food affordability or food insecurity challenges. Well, talk to me about those prices, like comparing a regular loaf of bread to one that is gluten-free. Yeah, so, you know, if you think about the cost of bread that has gone up, you know, a $2 loaf of bread, maybe a $4 loaf of bread for a gluten-free option, a lot of Canadians are looking closer to a $9 loaf of bread. It's a real jumping cost. Well, Canadians with celiac were able to get a tax break before, but I understand it was not as straightforward as this. That's right. And so this is not a new tax credit that's been announced. It's a change to what's called the medical expense tax credit, which we were able to claim before. The challenge with it is the red tape that is in place is so challenging for people to navigate that through our state of celiac survey a couple years back, we identified that 70% of people were not claiming what they were entitled to. What... What that looks like in practice, to access that tax credit, you had to keep track of every receipt for every expense for gluten-free food, as well as the cost of the regular gluten-containing alternative that you didn't purchase. To our knowledge, it's the only tax credit in Canada where you had to show both what you did buy and also what you hypothetically could have bought but didn't. And it was only the difference between those two products that you were actually able to claim. What this meant for Canadians was hundreds of receipts, calculations, spreadsheets, all to get a fairly modest credit towards their taxes at the end of the year. Well, does a $1,000 tax credit cover it, do you think? $1,000 is based on our research through the State of Celiac Survey. It is actually lower than what we know a number of Canadians were claiming. But the change in the process where now you can just claim that flat rate is going to make it much more accessible for a number of people who wouldn't have been able to access it otherwise. Well, how many Canadians are dealing with celiac disease? And for those who aren't aware, how does it affect them? Yes, celiac disease, it's an autoimmune condition that causes your body to attack its digestive system when you eat gluten, which is a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. We know about 1% of the population is currently diagnosed with celiac disease, although we're seeing that number increase significantly because it's largely underdiagnosed right now and as awareness about celiac is growing. More people are going and seeking that diagnosis. What it can look like is a range of symptoms. We say it's different for everybody. It could be sort of your lower end, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal issues. As you get more complex, it can move into malnutrition. For children, you can see failure to thrive. We know women can experience fertility challenges. There's a range of mood and mental health conditions like anxiety and depression that can come from it. And as you get up to the more complicated, less common impacts, you know, long-term health outcomes from celiac disease include osteoporosis and certain types of cancer. The challenge with it, of course, is that there's no medication for it. There's no cure for it. The only treatment we have is medical nutrition therapy in the form of a lifelong gluten-free diet. Well, have you heard any reaction to the budget news yet? We absolutely have. We've had resounding positive feedback from people with celiac across the country. I mentioned that this is something that we've been advocating for for many, many years. Tens of thousands of celiac patients have signed our petitions, they have contacted their members of parliament, and they've shared their stories with us about the impact that This affordability barrier has caused, and we've just heard such tremendously Positive and supportive feedback from them. It's been a real inspiring 24 hours for us. All right. Well, thank you so much for your time. We really do appreciate it. Thank you very much.