Finance committee  The Canadian Cancer Society strongly supports the tobacco tax increase in the bill of $4 per carton of 200 cigarettes. Higher tobacco taxes are the most effective strategy to reduce smoking, especially among youth. Tobacco remains the leading preventable cause of disease and death in Canada, killing almost 48,000 Canadians each year and causing 30% of cancer deaths.

Finance committee  We need a comprehensive strategy that includes taxation, legislation, cessation programs, education, and contraband prevention. There is more that the Ontario, Quebec, and federal governments can do to reduce contraband. We support those measures in parallel. The convenience store associations that make this...they're funded by the tobacco industry.

Finance committee  Yes. It's going down among both boys and girls, so the news is good. It's also going down among young adults, both male and female. However, we need to keep at it.

Finance committee  In recent years, there isn't. If we go back a couple of decades, there has been a change. It was going down among boys but not among girls. In more and more recent years, we've made progress among girls. It was very frustrating previously.

Finance committee  There are extensive studies that show that higher prices decrease consumption. I think the prices in Northwest Territories vary by community. In some cases, they may be lower than that. Your health minister recently stated in the legislative assembly that he wants Northwest Territories to have the highest tobacco taxes in Canada.

Finance committee  No, plain packaging is extremely important. The tobacco industry argues that plain packaging will cause contraband, but they always make that argument. They did it for larger health warnings on packages. They made the argument for retail display bans. However, we have actually seen a decrease in contraband volumes.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Chair. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify today. The focus of my testimony will be part 2 of the bill, clauses 47 to 67, implementing a $1-per-carton increase in tobacco taxes and modifying the inflation indexing for tobacco taxes from every five years to every year.

Health committee  I think you've summarized the key categories of amendments for the act.

Health committee  Over the decades, the experience over time has been that products turn out to be much more harmful than we initially thought they were. Also, some years ago, there were some predecessors to these heated products launched in the United States. The tobacco companies didn't disclose all their research.

Health committee  Through a combination of Bill C-45 and this bill, it will not be possible to consume cannabis wherever smoking is banned in federal workplaces—banks, broadcasting, the RCMP, or the federal government. Vaping devices can be used to consume cannabis and other substances, so that's a question if widespread advertising of these devices is to be allowed.

Health committee  I would expect it's anecdotal. I've seen no indication that this is widespread, or any level of volume of activity apart from anecdotal.

Health committee  With respect to vaping products, the government has a consultation paper. They have regulatory authority. There should be some upper limit in nicotine products as to how much nicotine would be allowed. There's a different issue with respect to cigarettes. A proposal to take nicotine out of cigarettes is simply not viable in Canada.

Health committee  One option is that there could be a regulatory authority to increase the age in the future.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  There are many factors. Sometimes it because it's available. Sometimes it's because of the low price or attractive flavours. For a certain segment of youth, it's a very positive product. It has a positive image that marketing creates, and that's why we need plain packaging.