Food prices, taxes, and obesity in Canada and its implications for food taxation

An important health financing issue facing Canada and other OECD countries (OECD, 2017) are the health consequences of obesity. Statistics Canada (2014) reports that 51.6% of adult Canadians were overweight or obese in 2009 compared to 53.6% in 2013. The proportion of Canadians who are overweight differs by sex, with 59.2% of Canadian males overweight in 2009 compared to 62% in 2013 and 43.9% of females overweight in 2009 compared to 45.1% in 2013. These increases have led to calls for policies to control obesity (see Clark et al., 2014). These rates of obesity are based on the body mass index (BMI) which is the ratio of weight (in kilograms) to the square of height (in meters). Cranfield (2007) uses the Canadian Community Heath Survey (CCHS) to examine the determinants of the body mass index (BMI) of Canadians.