Smoking Costs Canadians Billions in Healthcare and Loss of Life.

According to data from the Canadian Department of Health, in 2012 alone, smoking caused potential life losses due to mortality rates primarily caused by malignancies, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory diseases.

According to the Canadian Department of Health, tobacco use has a total cost of $16.2 billion (approximately RMB 108.6 billion), with indirect costs accounting for more than half of the total cost (58.5%) and direct costs accounting for the remaining cost (41.5%). Healthcare costs are the largest component of direct costs associated with smoking, amounting to approximately $6.5 billion (approximately RMB 43.6 billion) in 2012. This includes costs related to prescription drugs ($1.7 billion or approximately RMB 11.4 billion), physician care ($1 billion or approximately RMB 6.7 billion), and hospital care ($3.8 billion or approximately RMB 25.5 billion). The federal, provincial, and territorial governments also spent $122 million (approximately RMB 820 million) on tobacco control and enforcement.

The study also took into account the indirect costs associated with smoking, which reflect the increased morbidity and loss of productivity due to premature death (i.e. foregone income). These productivity losses totaled $9.5 billion (approximately RMB 63.7 billion), with nearly $2.5 billion (approximately RMB 16.8 billion) attributed to premature death and $7 billion (approximately RMB 46.9 billion) attributed to short-term and long-term disability.

Darryl Tempest, the government relations advisor for the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA), has suggested that policy makers should consider the health benefits of e-cigarettes when setting taxes on these products. Tempest explained that over time, losses in tobacco tax revenue can be offset by savings in healthcare and other indirect costs. Therefore, legislators should take the potential health benefits and corresponding healthcare savings for transitioning smokers into account when determining the consumption tax rates for e-cigarettes. Canada has already passed vaping regulations to achieve its goal of protecting youth, and Tempest thinks that the government should not use destructive tax measures but instead ensure that existing regulations are enforced.

Report on the Implementation of Tobacco Control Law

According to a report on the implementation of the Tobacco Control Act submitted by Quebec's Health Minister, Christian Dube, in November 2021, CVA explained that while some of the proposed restrictions make sense, others may lead to vapers returning to smoking.

The organization cited data from Ontario and British Columbia to show that among teenagers, in addition to high nicotine levels, one of the main driving factors for using e-cigarettes is unrestricted access to these products. On the other hand, adult smokers who are trying to quit often initially benefit from consuming high-nicotine products to prevent relapse. In fact, TPD data from the EU reveals that fewer smokers successfully quit using e-cigarettes after the 20 milliliter nicotine cap was put in place.

Effective policies do not fully ban these products, but instead restrict their sale to age-restricted specialty stores. According to the Quebec government's own admission, this is in line with high standards for preventing underage access, says CVA.