New data shows growth slowing as Canada’s MAiD program approaches long-term stability.
Kim Carlson& Paul Magennis. First published on 1 Oct on Substack. Full article access link at the end of this extract
When Canada’s Fifth Annual Report on MAiD came out last year, one number stood out: the year-over-year increase in medically assisted deaths was about 16%. That might sound like a lot, but compared to the 30%+ annual increases we’d seen in prior years, it marked a sharp slowdown. At the time, the report cautioned it was still too early to tell whether MAiD was levelling off.
But with newer data now available, there is a strong indication that Canada seems to be on a sharp trajectory toward a plateau.
The Sixth Annual Report on MAiD has not yet been released, but several provinces publish quarterly updates, and in some cases, additional data appears to have been obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.1 Using this combination of publicly released and FOI-obtained information, we now have 2024 data for the four provinces that together account for more than 90% of all MAiD deaths in Canada—British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec.
While not every province is represented, this dataset is large enough to provide a strong indication of where national numbers are heading. We have independently verified the Ontario and Alberta figures, and are in the process of confirming the British Columbia and Quebec data. However, based on what we know so far, we have no reason to believe these numbers are inaccurate.
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