Smoking in Canada
In Canada, smoking is allowed and tobacco products are regulated. Under these regulations, cigarettes can be sold, purchased online, used, and bought from vending machines. The importation of cigarettes for trade is permitted with a trade license. Health warnings are required on cigarette packaging, the minimum legal age for sales is 18 years, and there are legal restrictions on smoking in public places. Cigarettes are subject to an excise tax value of 54.47% and a total taxation rate of 63.34%. Available data show that smoking remains a significant public health issue in Canada. In 2024, there were approximately 3.5 million current smokers aged 15 years and older. This shows that the adult current smoking prevalence was 10.6% in 2024, with 13.1% among males and 8.1% among females. In comparison, this prevalence was 11.4% in 2022. For reference, the number of daily smokers was approximately 3.5 million in 2017 which shows that the adult daily tobacco smoking prevalence was 11.6%, with 19.1% among males and 13.4% among females. In 2021, smoking led to 34,171 deaths in Canada, including 20,700 deaths among males and 13,471 among females. This indicates that smoking accounted for 11% of all deaths in 2021 in the country, including 12.8% of male deaths and 9.04% of female deaths.
Read articles from Canada
September 26, 2022 by regulatorwatch.com
Public Health Blunder | Canada’s Vape Excise Tax Could Lead to More Smoking | RegWatch
Canada’s new excise tax on nicotine vaping products is days away from implementation, and the ramifications could be disastrous. [...] In this episode of RegWatch eminent tobacco control scholars Dr. Kenneth Warner and Cliff Douglas discuss recent research on e-cigarette taxes and why Canada’s new excise tax on vaping could be a public health blunder.
September 19, 2022 by thestar.com
Secrets of a tobacco insider: How crackdowns and high taxes just helped the industry make more money
It’s been a decade since the writer first met the lawyer — a chance encounter in a Toronto bar that abruptly informed him how little he knew about the legal consumer product likely to kill him.
So Joshua Knelman, author and smoker, went back to the lawyer, who had just exited a 12-year stint in the tobacco industry, and began the dozens of conversations that culminated in Firebrand: A Tobacco Lawyer’s Journey. One of the year’s most remarkable books, it brilliantly untangles what Knelman calls “the tobacco paradox” — how the tobacco trade thrives as much, if not more, than it ever has — and its many ironies.
September 01, 2022 by regulatorwatch.com
Incredibly Wrong | Millions Continue to Die Each Year Due to Smoking | RegWatch on GFN.TV (Rewind)
Canadian doctor responds to Health Canada’s proposed ban on flavours in nicotine vapor products
July 03, 2022 by globalnews.ca
B.C. adds sales tax to cigarettes, other tobacco products
B.C. is now collecting the PST on tobacco products, including cigars, chewing tobacco, raw tobacco and cigarette packs.
A $15.99 cigarette pack with the tobacco taxes will now cost seven per cent more than before, or $1.12 extra a pack. The tax began on July 1.
“We are moving in line with other provinces to make sure we collect PST on tobacco products,” Selina Robinson said, B.C.’s finance minister.
The province is exempting e-cigarettes and vaping juices in a push to get smokers to quit.
July 03, 2022 by regulatorwatch.com
Ravaged By Regs | Vape Retailer Calls for More Enforcement | RegWatch
There is one issue with the potential to unite anti-vaping campaigners with pro-vaping advocates and business owners in the Canadian vaping industry, and that issue is enforcement.
Both sides in the battle over vaping want to stop teen use of nicotine vaping products, yet the laws intended to prevent teen access are doing tremendous damage to the retail vaping industry while often going unenforced. Joining us today to discuss the struggles of Canadian vape retail is Jason Flynn, Ontario-based owner of Vape Escapes retail vape shops [...]
June 08, 2022 by digitaljournal.com
The Canadian Vaping Association: Flavours in vaping products are instrumental in helping adults quit smoking
Members in Belleville have voted to send a letter to health minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, and his next provincial counterpart asking for several amendments to current vaping regulation, including a reduction in the number of permitted flavours. The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) continues to caution regulators that flavour restrictions have unintended consequences such as increased smoking, a strengthened black-market and the closure of small businesses.
Increasingly, studies have found that “adults who began vaping nontobacco-flavoured e-cigarettes were more likely to quit smoking than those who vaped tobacco flavours.” [...]
May 16, 2022 by regulatorwatch.com
Doing Harm | Health Canada’s Confused Message on Vaping | RegWatch
It’s hard to believe, but this month is the fourth anniversary of nicotine vaping products becoming legal in Canada. It’s been a brutal four years, and much of the blame lies at the feet of Canada’s health regulator.
Joining us today to discuss Health Canada’s wrong turn on vaping is Martin Cullip, International Fellow at the Taxpayers Protection Alliance and prolific writer on harm reduction policy issues for major publications such as InsideSources, Center Square, Townhall, and Filter.
April 26, 2022 by biv.com
Views on vaping are softening in post-pandemic Canada
In 2018, Health Canada took some major steps to deal with the use of vaping products across Canada. The measures, which arrived after news stories in the United States focused on a marked increase in the consumption of these products by young Americans, were well received by Canadians.
In the early years of this century, electronic cigarettes were regarded as a welcome option for people who were trying to quit smoking. However, the emergence of vaping products that actually delivered nicotine into our bodies was lost in an improperly designed regulatory framework. [...]
April 21, 2022 by regulatorwatch.com
Anxious & Activated | Canadian Vapers Fight for Survival | RegWatch
One might hope the plunge in teen vaping and near eradication of teen smoking would prompt Health Canada and the federal government to slow their campaign to restrict adult access and choice to nicotine vaping products.
But this is clearly not the case, the outlook for vaping in Canada may be growing worse.
Joining us today to discuss the compounding threats to the Canadian vaping industry is Daniel David, president of VITA, the Vaping Industry Trade Association of Canada and Meshaila Sinnis, VITA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs.
April 13, 2022 by youtube.com
Introduction to tobacco harm reduction
What is Tobacco Harm Reduction? Why do we need it and what are the common myths? Is it safe and does it work? This 30-minute presentation was made to the Harm Reduction Forum in Canada, 5 April 2022