Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I'm pleased to be with you again this week on a different topic, Bill C-32.
I'm joined today again by Diane Labelle, from the Department of Justice, legal counsel for Health Canada; Cathy Sabiston, director general of the program; and Denis Choinière, an expert in the area.
Last week I was here discussing the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, and there were several amendments related to tobacco products and their fit within the scope. It's my pleasure to be here today to speak to you regarding the important amendments to the Tobacco Act that will help to modernize this important piece of legislation to keep pace with the constantly evolving marketing practices of the tobacco industry.
Health Canada is the lead department for the Government of Canada's Federal Tobacco Control Strategy. Delivery of the Federal Strategy is coordinated across a number of departments and agencies including the Canada Revenue Agency, Canada Border Services Agency, Public Safety Canada and the RCMP.
The efforts of our federal partners are critical to the success of the strategy, particularly work related to regulating, verifying, monitoring, and assessing, and to the changes in the contraband tobacco environment. The overall objective of the strategy is to reduce death and disease in Canada caused by tobacco usage. Over 37,000 Canadians die every year from tobacco usage, and it costs the health care system over $4.4 billion a year in direct costs.
The strategy is comprehensive in nature, working in areas such as smoking cessation, preventing youth from starting to smoke, protecting Canadians from the effects of second-hand smoke, as well as product regulation. It is by nature a comprehensive strategy that works with provinces and territories, public stakeholders, and non-governmental tobacco control organizations to reduce smoking rates in Canada.
Health Canada also administers the Tobacco Act. The act regulates the manufacturing, sale, labelling and promotion of tobacco products. It was upheld after a ten-year legal challenge by the tobacco industry.
Canada's work under the federal tobacco control strategy and the Tobacco Act has been adopted internationally and has formed the basis for the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first public health treaty.
While we are interested in helping other countries at very early stages of tobacco control, we are also very aware of what's been happening within Canada, especially over the past few years. We have noticed dramatic changes in the tobacco marketplace. We have noticed that the tobacco industry as a whole has started marketing some tobacco products with new flavours that may be especially appealing to youth. It is possible that members of the committee have not seen these products, since they are required to be out of sight at retail. When you see the products addressed in Bill C-32, you'll know that something has to be done.
I'd like to show you a couple of examples. I'll hold these up. I know some people might have sensitivities, so we won't pass them out. These are products that exist today.
This is a package of Aloha. These are chocolate-banana flavoured cigarettes. These are Dutch chocolate, available today.
These are what we refer to as the cigarillos, and they're sold in singles in these nice little containers that look like markers.
These are also examples of cigarillos, available today on the marketplace, sold in singles like this. This is a pack of cigarillos as well, again, put in a small package. I don't know what image that brings to your mind. I won't tell you what it brings to mine, but it's not cigars or cigarettes right from the outset.
There are other challenges we face, for example, in some cases how small the health warning messages are getting and the ability to see those as we move forward. And with respect, this is one of my personal surprises--vitamin-enriched cigarettes, VitaCig. These are all available today. Staff from my office were able to purchase these.