Ottawa should stop profiting from youth vaping and start reducing it.

Weedless Wednesday is an annual occasion to acknowledge the harms of tobacco industry products and to commit to individual and societal action to reduce them. With the dissolution of Parliament clearly on the horizon, today is an occasion to reflect on the failure of the federal government’s failure to ameliorate the problems they caused when…

Feds pocket $74+ million from kids’ vaping

As reported here earlier, the federal Public Accounts that were tabled on the last day Parliament sat before Christmas provide details on the excise taxes collected by various federal agencies. This blog reports on the evolving role of vaping taxes as a source of federal revenues and the disproportionate amount provided by young people. Tobacco tax revenues…

An update on tobacco sales and tax revenues in Canada
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An update on tobacco sales and tax revenues in Canada

This post provides updated information on cigarette sales and tobacco taxes in Canada. Links to Fact sheets with the data reflected in the figures below are provided at the bottom of the post. 1) Total tobacco tax revenues in Canada continue to fall – and more quickly than predicted by tax officials. Overall, tobacco tax revenues…

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Federal budget will trigger much-needed price increases for tobacco and vaping products

(Ottawa – April 19, 2021) Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada welcomes the measures included in today’s federal budget to increase taxes on tobacco products and to implement a new tax on vaping products. “These are long overdue and important steps to help protect Canadian children,” said Cynthia Callard, Executive Director. “Tobacco products in Canada are…

A new year begins… and so do some tobacco-related measures
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A new year begins… and so do some tobacco-related measures

The new year is a common date for governments to peg for implementing regulations or new rules. This year is no exception, with new tobacco control provisions kicking in this week. Other regular New Year’s changes will be price increases set by tobacco companies. This post reviews these events — with related and updated fact…

Industry raises prices – AGAIN – while taxes remain largely unchanged
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Industry raises prices – AGAIN – while taxes remain largely unchanged

In mid-August, Imperial Tobacco again raised prices on its tobacco products. As shown in the price list circulated to retailers and pasted below, they are now charging from $2.50 to $4.50 more per carton in Ontario. Price increases in other provinces have not yet been located, but they are usually imposed at the same time….

Taxing Vaping Products
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Taxing Vaping Products

E-cigarette taxes: A global snapshot Earlier this month, we reported on taxes on cigarettes in Canada, and also on heat-not-burn tobacco sticks.* This post reviews Canadian tax measures on e-cigarettes (vaping products), and compares with those in other jurisdictions. Vaping taxes in Canada: Currently, the federal government does not impose taxes on e-cigarettes, other than the GST…

Heat-not-burn cigarettes are much cheaper than regular cigarettes
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Heat-not-burn cigarettes are much cheaper than regular cigarettes

Heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco products may look like short cigarettes, but they function in a very different way. In cigarettes, it is fire (combustion) that releases the nicotine from the tobacco leaf. With heat-not-burn cigarettes, the tobacco rod is inserted into a device, where it is impaled on an electronically-heated element which vaporizes the nicotine. These…

Cigarette taxes went up across Canada today — a tiny bit
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Cigarette taxes went up across Canada today — a tiny bit

It’s no April Fools. Federal taxes were increased on cigarettes today — from $28.43 per carton of cigarettes to $28.85, or $0.042 per package of 20 cigarettes. This increase was not the result of a budgetary decision this year, but because of an automatic quinquennial inflation adjustment introduced in the 2014 budget, and annualized in the 2018 budget. If…

Another new year, another round of tobacco manufacturers’ price increases.
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Another new year, another round of tobacco manufacturers’ price increases.

This week Canadian tobacco companies raised the price they charge to retailers for cigarettes and other toabcco products. This month the price (per cigarette) went up by 1 to 1.5 cents in in most parts of Canada ($2.50 to $3.60 per carton), as shown in the memo sent by Imperial Tobacco to retailers on December…