Let’s be direct: tobacco kills 13,000 Quebecers each year. This is almost as many as those who have died from COVID-19 in three years (2020, 2021 and 2022, or 16,426). It is the leading cause of preventable illnesses and deaths, accounting for the equivalent of a third of hospital stays.
Posted yesterday at 1:00 p.m.
Despite the extent and scope of human suffering, Quebec has not brought forward any new legislative, regulatory or tax measures to reduce smoking or to counter vaping among young people since 2015. The long-awaited measure to protect our young people against nicotine addiction, i.e. the banning of flavors in vaping liquids, was announced only to be forgotten on the shelves.
But there is one measure that stands out among all anti-tobacco measures, namely the one that explains the reversal of the major trends of the last century leading to the gradual reduction in the smoking rate since the 1990s: the high price of tobacco products.
It has long been recognized – by the World Health Organization, the World Bank and scientific consensus – that raising the price of cigarettes is the most effective lever to reduce smoking. The measure was so effective in the 1980s and 1990s that the industry orchestrated the emergence of the phenomenon of cigarette smuggling, in particular with a view to pushing governments to abandon this policy, which it succeeded with the drastic reduction taxes in 1994.
Quebec is dragging its feet
The Quebec tax has almost become an object of derision, being by far the lowest in the country, with a difference of $15 a cartridge with that of Ontario, the second lowest in the country. In addition, the value of our tobacco tax continues to erode due to inflation, down approximately $7 since the last increase in 2014.
Anti-tobacco groups are not the only ones to challenge the government, year after year, in this direction. Last year, the regional directors of public health signed a letter addressed to the Minister of Finance to demand an increase of $7 per cartridge, echoing the recommendations of the national director of public health. The public also seems to understand that the tobacco tax is distinct and different in nature from any other consumption tax: in fact, nearly 8 out of 10 Quebecers support its increase.
The solutions already exist
That’s why leading anti-smoking health groups sent out a questionnaire to political parties with concrete, proven solutions, including taxation. We sincerely hope that the next government will once again take a serious interest in the fight against smoking, going beyond the “soft” interventions that characterized the 1970s and 1980s, namely the campaigns aimed at educate the public about the risks, prevent sales to minors and promote smoking cessation.
While necessary, these approaches alone are not sufficient to lower smoking rates. We have all seen it: reducing tobacco use requires structural measures such as the banning of industry practices that encourage tobacco consumption, the protection of non-smokers and, today more than ever, higher prices to deter current and potential smokers.
Calling for the implementation of this simple, effective and profitable lever to improve the health of the population, unclog the health system and generate hundreds of millions in revenue does not “politicize” the subject. On the contrary, it is rather by assimilating the tobacco tax to consumption taxes and income taxes that form the tax burden of Quebecers that we “politicize” this essential public health measure.