Prime Minister Stephen Harper hosts student roundtable to discuss anti-smoking efforts

October 26, 2009

Welcomes the Royal Assent of ‘Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act’

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper today met with Ottawa-area high school students about their efforts to reduce smoking among young people.  Meeting the students at St. Joseph High School, the Prime Minister took the opportunity to highlight a new, tougher law that will make tobacco products less accessible and appealing to youth, positioning Canada as a world leader in tobacco control.  He was joined by representatives of the Canadian Lung Association, as well as other anti-tobacco groups that lead outreach activities in high schools in Eastern Ontario.

“Our government’s main priority is the health and well-being of Canadians, particularly our children and youth,” said the Prime Minister.  “That is why our government introduced the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act as one step to help prevent young people from starting to smoke and forming a life-long addiction to an unhealthy habit.”

The Act was introduced by the Harper Government on May 26, 2009, and became law on October 8, 2009.  It protects children and youth from tobacco industry marketing practices by putting an end to the selling of tobacco products in single or small quantity “kiddy-packs” that are affordable to youth.  It also prohibits the addition of flavourings and additives which give a candy flavour to little cigars, cigarettes and blunt wraps.  The Act also prohibits tobacco advertising in daily newspapers and free entertainment weeklies.

“Our government is making tobacco products less affordable, less accessible and less appealing to our young people,” said the Prime Minister.  “We can help prevent young people from starting to smoke with tough new laws and efforts like those of the Canadian Lung Association and anti-smoking student groups.”




Backgrounder

Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act

The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act, which amends the Tobacco Act, protects children and youth from tobacco industry marketing practices that encourage them to use tobacco products.  These marketing practices include the use of appealing additives, including flavourings that would appeal to children and youth; the availability of little cigars and blunt wraps (sheets or tubes of tobacco) as singles, or in small-quantity “kiddy-packs”; and tobacco advertising in daily newspapers and free entertainment weeklies.


Additives such as Flavours and Vitamins

Little cigars (also known as cigarillos) and blunt wraps are marketed today with fruit flavours and other additives (such as vitamins or sugar) masking the harshness of the tobacco.  Cigarettes also contain similar additives.  Research studies and the tobacco industry’s own internal documents – released through court cases –  indicate that the addition of additives, such as fruit and candy flavours, to tobacco products makes them more appealing to young and new users. 

The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act will:

• prohibit the addition of flavours (excluding menthol) and other additives to little cigars, cigarettes and blunt wraps that would appeal to children and youth
• prohibit the representation of these appealing additives and flavours on the package (such as through a picture or graphic)

Prohibiting the representation of appealing additives and flavours on a package meets the Prime Minister’s commitment to block tobacco marketing aimed at children and youth, allowing for timely enforcement, as inspectors can seize tobacco products that are represented as being flavoured.

The new Act also provides the Government of Canada the flexibility, through Orders in Council, to add other additives to the schedule of banned additives at any time in the future, if evidence supports such interventions. 


Tobacco Advertising

This new legislation also removes a current exception in the Tobacco Act that allows advertising to be placed in publications with an adult readership of at least 85 per cent.  This measure responds to a recent resurgence of tobacco advertising in free entertainment weeklies and daily newspapers.


Minimum Package Quantities

Unlike cigarettes that must be sold in packages of 20, little cigars and blunt wraps are often sold individually and priced for as little as a dollar.  This new legislation will extend the minimum quantity provision that exists for cigarettes to little cigars and blunt wraps, requiring them to be packaged in quantities of at least 20.  This change will end the industry practice of selling these products as singles or in small-quantity “kiddy-packs” that are attractive to youth.


Tobacco Products for Exports

The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act is designed to address public health concerns within Canada.  It prohibits the use of flavours and other appealing additives from being used in little cigars, cigarettes and blunt wraps because they serve as an inducement to smoking by youth in Canada.

This Act prohibits certain additives in products manufactured for the Canadian market.  It is the Government of Canada’s policy intent that products manufactured in Canada solely for the export market will not be impacted by these measures.

Other countries are responsible for determining whether banning flavours or other additives from tobacco products meet with their public health and tobacco control objectives.
 

Coming into Force

The coming into force provisions were developed to provide a transition that is orderly and fair to both retailers and manufacturers. 

Measures to ban advertising in publications that are easily accessible by Canadian youth will come into effect immediately following Royal Assent, which happened on October 8, 2009.  This will remove the exemption that allowed tobacco advertising in publications that had at least 85% adult readership.  This means that tobacco advertising can no longer appear in publications that Canadian youth can access, such as free weekly entertainment publications, newspapers or magazines.

To allow time to modify packaging to meet the new requirements, tobacco manufacturers and importers will have six months following Royal Assent to comply with the provisions on minimum package quantities.  After this time, little cigars and blunt wraps can only be imported, packaged, distributed or sold in packages containing at least 20 units.

The provisions on the use of flavours and other additives in the manufacturing of cigarettes, little cigars and blunt wraps will come into effect six months following Royal Assent.  This provides manufacturers and importers with time to modify their products and packaging.  The retail sale of all cigarettes, little cigars and blunt wraps that contain flavourings or other specified additives will end nine months following Royal Assent.