The groups urged provincial and territorial governments to bolster tobacco control to mitigate harm
The health groups Action on Smoking & Health Canada and Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control have highlighted gaps they identified in a $32.5 billion settlement agreement made with tobacco companies.
This follows the announcement that the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act tobacco litigation proceedings would get court sign-off, facilitating the release of payouts. The companies will pay $24.7 billion to provincial and territorial governments and $7.7 billion to individual victims of the tobacco industry.
According to Flory Doucas, the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control’s codirector and spokesperson, the settlement “effectively allows tobacco companies to continue in a 'business as usual' manner without any restrictions on their operations.”
“The settlement negotiated by the provinces contains no remedial actions to counter the ongoing harm to victims and additional demands on the health care system resulting from these companies' products,” Doucas said in a statement. “There is no industry restructuring to curb the sale of their deadly products, no measures to curtail the industry's ability to recruit more customers, and no funds to help smokers quit.”
She pointed out that the companies’ ability to pay the settlement relied on cigarette sales, creating an “apparent conflict of interest” between revenue generation and public health obligations. Les Hagen, ASH Canada’s executive director, added that the payout was under 5 percent of what Big Tobacco supposedly owed provincial and territorial governments for decades of smoking-related health care expenses.
ASH Canada and the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control pointed to the 1998 US Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which incorporated remedial actions like banning tobacco sponsorships and outdoor advertising nationwide, limiting tobacco sales to minors, intensifying cigarette warnings, and establishing the US$365 million national tobacco control "Truth Initiative" that facilitated meaningful prevention advocacy and industry denormalization.
The comparatively weaker Canadian settlement contradicted the provincial governments’ focus on public health concerns in their initial court filings, the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control said.
“Without immediate remedial measures to curtail the industry's ability to recruit new customers and adequate funding for tobacco control initiatives, the settlement negotiated by the provinces and territories will be nothing more than a colossal cash-grab that does nothing to protect future generations from predatory tobacco companies,” Hagen said.
The groups sought the modernization of tobacco control strategies with forward-looking, prevention-focused measures, with these strategies being financed by part of the settlement proceeds. The groups pitched measures such as prohibiting all remaining commercial inducements towards smoking and vaping, controlling prices, requiring licensing for all stages in the commercialization process, prohibiting online and interprovincial sales, restricting retail density, and enhancing smoking cessation coverage.
“Most provincial antitobacco strategies have faced significant cutbacks in the past 10-15 years, impeding renewed efforts to reduce and prevent tobacco use. The settlement will not prevent future victims - unless provincial governments adopt stronger tobacco reduction measures and fund those efforts adequately,” Hagen said in a statement. “Now that the negotiations are over and cash payments are commencing, the ball is squarely in the court of the provincial and territorial governments to remedy the flawed settlement.”
In a decision described as "unprecedented", the Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently greenlit $909 million in class counsel fees for the lawyers who litigated the claims.
