National Strategy for Eye Care
Executive Summary
Vision health can be fundamental to Canadians' quality of life, supporting independence, education, employment, and full participation in society. Yet millions of Canadians live with preventable or treatable eye conditions, and access to timely, affordable, and coordinated eye care services remains uneven across the country. Demographic pressures, including an aging population, rising chronic disease, and increasing rates of myopia among youth, are expected to significantly increase demand for eye care services in the coming decades.
The National Strategy for Eye Care (the Strategy) proposes a pan-Canadian framework to improve the prevention and treatment of eye disease and strengthen vision rehabilitation services. It has been developed in accordance with the National Strategy for Eye Care Act (the Act), which requires the federal Minister of Health to develop a national strategy to support the prevention and treatment of eye disease, as well as vision rehabilitation, to ensure better health outcomes for Canadians, in consultation with the representatives of the provincial and territorial governments which share responsibility for matters related to healthFootnote1, Indigenous groups, and other relevant stakeholders.
The Strategy has been shaped through an engagement process, which included outreach to National Indigenous Organizations as a key component. Over the course of this process, Health Canada held more than 50 dialogue sessions with over 100 stakeholders, including physicians (such as ophthalmologists), optometrists, opticians, people who are blind or partially sighted, individuals with lived experiences of vision loss, representatives from private industry, non-government organizations and other service providers, researchers, representatives of Government of Canada organizations, and representatives from provinces and territories. The engagement process culminated in a national conference held on February 4, 2026, which brought partners together to inform the development of the Strategy.
