Marci Ien, Canada’s minister for women, gender equality and youth, surprised the crowd at fertility awareness week with her recent speech.
Ien “had a script to say a few words and she said ‘I’m not reading what I had written. I’m going to tell you a personal story,’” said Carolynn Dubé, president of Fertility Matters Canada, which organized the awareness week.
“And [Ien] told the room of her own fertility journey which was very special,” Dubé said. “That was the highlight of the week.”
Ien was there to announce the federal government’s commitment to improving Canadians’ access to fertility treatment over the next year. Her co-mandate with Health Minister Mark Holland includes ensuring all Canadians have reproductive and sexual health information available online as well as access to health services including in vitro fertilization.
“She publicly committed to moving through on this mandate and understanding how we can make changes … in the next 12 months,” Dubé said.
Ien committed to meeting with Holland, representatives of Fertility Matters Canada and other stakeholders in industry and government to develop new strategies. Dubé says the group hopes to finalize the strategies before the fall economic statement.
National fertility strategy
The fertility awareness week, which ran April 21 through 27, was the largest and most engaged in the event’s history, said Dubé.
The theme was “one voice” and the “goal was to bring together the patient voices that make up modern day family-building,” said Dubé. Each day, a new video was released highlighting the challenges on the path to having — or choosing to not have — a family, such as experiencing infertility, surrogacy or egg freezing.
“Just on Instagram we had just under 600,000 views in eight days,” said Dubé. “That video series … was incredibly impactful.”
The week also aims to teach government policy makers and business how to offer Canadians better access to fertility treatments.
Currently, the organization is looking for strategies that can be completed in 12 months to present to Ien. The strategies focus on “helping [families] recoup costs or accessing experts and clinics.”
In another lobbying effort, the organization launched a federal petition urging the government to consider a national fertility strategy and to research the need for fertility treatment in Canada — for which data is sorely lacking, said Dubé.
Federal MP Marcus Powlowski, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, presented the 5,300-signature petition in the House of Commons on April 30.
“I’m truly blessed in life to being able to have had six children. They’re absolutely one of the best parts of my life,” said Powlowski. “But unfortunately, all Canadians don’t have the same good fortune. In fact, one in six Canadians at some point in their lives have some sort of fertility problems.
“The petition calls on the government to develop a national fertility strategy and in collaboration with provinces to build a more equitable future for fertility care in Canada.”
Taxes and ‘taxing’
Fertility Matters Canada advocates for change within each province and territory. Lana de Bastiani will soon submit a petition calling for funding to offer IVF in the Northwest Territories, which now has 270-signatures.
The petition asks the Northwest Territories to investigate the impact of the territory’s declining birth rate and the benefits of offering fertility treatment, as well as the feasibility of supporting access to treatment through a territorial tax credit.
De Bastiani knows how expensive IVF treatment is. She is currently undergoing IVF and has had to travel to Alberta five times for the treatment. She anticipates at least two more rounds of travel to complete just one IVF transfer. Each trip to Alberta costs about $1,500 for travel and accommodation, de Bastiani estimates. She must also take time off work to go.
“It’s a mentally and emotionally taxing,” de Bastiani said.
De Bastiani and her partner pay for the treatment and costs out of pocket.
A tax credit “would help to … really alleviate the financial costs and the financial burden that is associated with having to travel to access these treatments,” she said.
Making access to fertility treatment easier creates more Canadian families, said Dubé.
“People have the right to have families,” she said.
