Smokers will pay more for their cigarettes in Quebec when the tax on tobacco products will increase by $8 per carton of 200 cigarettes starting Thursday.
Quebec announces that the rate of the specific tax per cigarette as well as per gram of loose tobacco or leaf tobacco will increase from 14.9 to 18.9 cents.
As for the tax rate per gram of all tobacco other than cigarettes, loose and leaf tobacco as well as cigars, it will show 29.07 cents, instead of 22.92 cents currently.
These increases are a first since 2014 and are intended to strengthen the fight against tobacco use in the province, underlined the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, in a press release on Wednesday.
The Legault government hopes that this tax measure will reduce the number of tobacco users in Quebec, particularly among young people. It also wishes to achieve the objective of reducing the prevalence of smoking to 10% by 2025, which is part of its health prevention policy.
In Quebec, the smoking rate in 2021 was 13.3% according to Statistics Canada estimates, ranking the province fourth in tobacco consumption in the country.
Smoking-related health costs are estimated at $3.8 billion a year, the finance minister’s office says.
The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health (CQTS) has been asking the government for years to tax tobacco products more to dissuade consumers from purchasing them and to fund health care caused by smoking.
According to the CQTS, Quebec is last in terms of tobacco taxation compared to other Canadian provinces, or $30 less than the Canadian average.
The government assures that its ACCES Tobacco program, intended to counter the illegal tobacco trade, must continue its efforts to prevent the increase in taxation from stimulating the contraband market.