Thank you, Minister, for being here.
Minister, I want to congratulate you on bringing this legislation in. I think it's overdue. I wish that you had brought it in sooner, because we all know that every day we wait, thousands of young Canadians try smoking, and many of them become addicted. We know that 50%, I think is the statistic we heard, of people who start smoking will eventually die of a tobacco-related illness, so every day that we wait is a day that more Canadians are going to ultimately die of this highly addictive product.
My question to you as Minister of Health—and we're the health committee—is, do you agree that nicotine is highly addictive?