🍁 civid v1

Status and purpose

• Bill C-206 was introduced at first reading on June 10, 2025. It would establish a new Act requiring a national strategy on brain injuries.
• The strategy would address awareness, prevention and treatment, as well as rehabilitation and recovery.

National strategy

• The Minister of Health would have to develop the strategy in consultation with provincial health representatives, Indigenous groups and relevant stakeholders.
• The strategy would have to include measures to:
  • Promote prevention, research, data collection, information sharing and professional training.
  • Create national guidelines for prevention, diagnosis and management, including recommended standards of care.
  • Improve public understanding and protect the rights of people living with brain injuries.
  • Support collaboration and provide financial support to brain injury associations and service providers for enhanced, integrated mental health resources for affected people and their families.
  • Encourage mental health consultation in settings including schools, sports organizations and workplaces.
  • Address related challenges, including addiction, housing and homelessness, criminality and intimate partner violence.
  • Maintain online resources and establish a task force that includes affected people and their families, Indigenous groups, service providers and policy makers.

Reports and deadlines

• Within 18 months after the Act comes into force, the minister would have to prepare a report setting out the strategy and table it in each House of Parliament within the specified 15-sitting-day period.
• The strategy report would have to be published on the Department of Health website within 10 days after tabling in both Houses.
• Within five years after the strategy report is tabled in both Houses, the minister would have to evaluate the strategy and the situation concerning brain injuries, in consultation with the same groups, and prepare a report with conclusions and recommendations. That report would also have to be tabled in each House within the specified 15-sitting-day period.

Who is affected and costs

• The bill principally concerns people living with brain injuries and their families, as well as health professionals, brain injury associations and service providers. Provincial health representatives, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders would be involved in consultation.
• The bill calls for financial support to associations and service providers but does not specify an amount in the provided text. It creates a new Act; the text does not identify amendments to existing laws.