{"id":107102,"date":"2025-08-30T05:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/107102\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T05:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:23:10","slug":"money-begins-rolling-out-to-provinces-in-historic-tobacco-settlement-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/107102\/","title":{"rendered":"Money begins rolling out to provinces in \u2018historic\u2019 tobacco settlement – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Money from a historic tobacco settlement<\/a> is set to flow to provinces and territories starting Friday, but advocates say the money needs to go towards health programs aimed at smoking<\/a> cessation and youth prevention.<\/p>\n

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The settlement was approved in March by Ontario Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz, with $32.5 billion in compensation to be distributed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a historic opportunity for provincial and territorial governments to invest in their provincial tobacco<\/a> control strategies, allocate a significant portion of the funds to reduce smoking, reduce tobacco use,\u201d said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society.<\/p>\n

The settlement first came about in October 2024 after years of mediation between JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson and Hedges, and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. and the three companies\u2019 creditors.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs in two Quebec class-action lawsuits, as well as provinces and territorial governments seeking to recoup smoking-related health-care costs, were among those creditors.<\/p>\n

Under the settlement, about $24 billion will roll out to provinces and territories over the span of two decades, while plaintiffs in the two Quebec lawsuits will receive more than $4 billion to split. The claims period for those members opens Friday.<\/p>\n

But on Friday, a portion of the overall settlement will roll out directly to provinces and territories, with Ontario and Quebec seeing the most \u2014 $1.8 billion and $1.7 billion respectively.<\/p>\n

Canadian smokers are also being compensated from the settlement, with $2.5 billion to go towards those not included in the lawsuits. More than $1 billion will go to a foundation to fight tobacco-related diseases, with part of the money coming from $131 million taken from the amount allocated to the Quebec plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

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Imperial Tobacco said the rollout of the money was a \u201cmilestone\u201d as it allows them to move away from the Companies\u2019 Creditors Arrangement Act and manage the business \u201cin an ongoing basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe settlement did a few things. I think it maximizes the payments for claimants, but also took into consideration the ability of the industry and its capacity to pay,\u201d said Eric Gagnon, vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs for Imperial. \u201cWe\u2019re on the journey to support Canada\u2019s objective of reducing smoking incidents in this country below five per cent by 2035.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rothmans, Benson & Hedges said in an email it was pleased the settlement was being implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan resolves all tobacco product-related claims and litigation in Canada against RBH and its affiliates, allowing RBH and its stakeholders to focus fully on the future,\u201d the email said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tDetails on how money will be spent ‘to be determined’\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

When the funding was announced, some provinces indicated where their share would go. Saskatchewan, for example<\/a>, said the money would support cancer care and prevention efforts.<\/p>\n

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But some have not said what they plan to do or how the money will be used.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow these funds will ultimately be allocated is still to be determined,\u201d the Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services of Alberta told Global News in an email.<\/p>\n

Quebec\u2019s Minist\u00e8re de la Sant\u00e9 et des Services sociaux said due to the funding being spread out over 20 years, it is difficult to determine how the money will be spend, though its goal is to reduce the proportion of smokers in the province to 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cTobacco control and raising awareness of the risks of tobacco use have been a priority for the MSSS for several years,\u201d a spokesperson wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma called the initial up front rollout marks an \u201cimportant milestone,\u201d adding the money Friday and overall $3.7 million expected will be invested, though did not break down exactly how much will go into certain tobacco strategies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRegardless of any settlements or future payments, our government will continue to invest in cancer treatment, primary care and treatment research, and to promote smoking cessation for the benefit of British Columbians,\u201d Sharma said.<\/p>\n

Robert Schwartz, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and executive director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, said the lack of information on where the money will go is concerning.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s scandalous,\u201d he said. \u201cProvinces like Ontario not telling us what they\u2019re going to do with the money. I mean, you know, the default is that it goes into the general coffers and gets lost. The least that the province could do was to take this money and invest it in tobacco control to prevent many, many people in the future from becoming sick and dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t5:07
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanadian Cancer Society calls for tobacco settlement funds to support anti-smoking efforts\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The number of smokers in Canada has dropped to its lowest levels, but there remains about four million tobacco smokers in the country and approximately 46,000 die from tobacco-related deaths every year.<\/p>\n

While billions are being sent out, some advocates like Les Hagen says it\u2019s still a \u201cdisappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big disappointment because it\u2019s really just all about the money,\u201d Hagen, the executive director for the Association for Action on Smoking and Health, said. \u201cThis settlement is really a 40-year licence for the tobacco industry to keep operating in a business-as-usual manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hagen went on to criticize what he said is a lack of remedial measures in the settlement, but added it\u2019s something provinces and territories could improve on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can take further action to limit the marketing efforts of this industry, and of course \u2026 a small portion of those funds would go an awful long way to supporting smokers through increased, improved cessation programs (and) better prevention programs for youth,\u201d Hagen said.<\/p>\n

Gagnon argued having tobacco companies still in place may help avoid an illicit market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe comply with every regulation. We recognize the health risk associated with smoking,\u201d Gagnon said. \u201cBut tomorrow morning if the government decided that they don\u2019t want a tobacco industry that\u2019s legal, they\u2019re allowed to do that, but we have to accept that, you know, 100 per cent of the market will be illegal and people will continue to smoke nonetheless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deal is a pan-Canadian settlement of all outstanding tobacco litigation in the country. As noted by Schwartz, the companies had faced claims totalling more than $1 trillion, including lawsuits from provincial governments seeking to recover smoking-related health-care costs as well as other actions.<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from Global News\u2019 Andrea Macpherson and The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Money from a historic tobacco settlement is set to flow to provinces and territories starting Friday, but advocates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,57362,84,3378,10747,61013],"class_list":["post-107102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cigarettes","tag-health","tag-smoking","tag-tobacco","tag-tobacco-settlement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}