Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to begin in this House the second reading debate on Bill C-42.
Bill C-42 is a short bill. It is a simple bill. It proposes an amendment to the Tobacco Act and focuses on one aspect of the tobacco issue, and one issue alone, and that is the promotion of tobacco products through the sponsorship of events.
What the bill does is straightforward. It will toughen the existing Tobacco Act. It will take a piece of legislation that is already one of the strongest in the world and make it even stronger.
The bill would ban the promotion of tobacco sponsorships following a five year transition period. Although the bill is short, it is not an isolated action. It builds on the enormous step forward which our government took in proposing the Tobacco Act and which the last parliament took in passing the legislation.
That act, members will recall, takes aim squarely at the number one cause of preventable death and disease in Canadian society. Its goal is to protect and promote the health of all Canadians. It is aimed specifically at keeping children and young people from starting to smoke.
The health facts are clear. Last year more than 40,000 Canadians died of tobacco related illnesses. That means that each day, on average, more than 100 Canadians died with tobacco standing in the background. Many of those people died of heart disease. Others died of lung disease. Still others fell victim to cancer or some of the many other illnesses that have their roots in the use of tobacco products.
There are some worrisome trends that could add to that toll over time. The percentage of young people between the ages of 15 and 19 who smoke has actually risen in recent years. We need to take continued and effective action to reverse those trends.
However, we must approach this in a way that recognizes that tobacco is a unique product, yet we simply cannot ban it. Tobacco is addictive and over time it is often deadly. It has made its way throughout our culture and indeed cultures throughout the world.
The reality is that to combat something that pervasive, simplistic solutions simply do not work. For that reason the federal government's approach to tobacco control has included a variety of elements. Legislation, educational programs and taxation have all been part of this mix.
Increasingly we have taken steps to affect other aspects of the process that lead young people to smoke. An important focus of the Tobacco Act was to cut the exposure of young Canadians to tobacco promotion. Tobacco advertising had been prohibited for some time and the Tobacco Act continues restrictions in a manner that we believe reflects the charter of rights and freedoms.
However, as traditional advertising avenues were closed off to the tobacco industry they seized on the use of event sponsorships and promotions.
According to research, the people who market tobacco products are no different from those marketing any other product. They all seek to understand consumer behaviour, especially the behaviour of consumers who are likely to start using their product. We know they are studying the various factors involved in making the decision to smoke.
So who are they studying? Something like 90% of all smokers start before they are 20 years old, usually well before. In fact we can even say as young as 12. So they must logically be an important target.
Like all marketers, these tobacco people want potential customers to associate their brands with positive images. More than that they want to get their product names in front of as many people as possible. They want tobacco products to be linked to events and activities that people enjoy.
With less and less recourse to traditional advertising, association with sports, cultural and other community events has become very important. Events take on cigarette names. Posters and billboards advertising them are everywhere. Therefore people, especially young people, become familiar with the brands, the logos and the overall presence of tobacco in our society.
We might say in this regard that familiarity breeds contempt, not by itself and not in a simple, direct and crystal clear line, yet there it is. There are many factors that influence a 15 year old's decision to smoke. There are many steps between a first puff and a consistent pack a day addiction. But the research indicates that event promotion is a very significant factor in the overall smoking decision process of our young people. Tobacco brand names can seem to become innocuous, present everywhere, as if they were a normal consumer product.
In making these points about the health impacts of smoking or the importance of event marketing to the tobacco industry, I am simply restating some important points that were made during the debate on the Tobacco Act in the last parliament. Perhaps more important, I am simply restating points that were made on both sides of the House and in the other place in that debate.
This House has historically demonstrated its awareness that smoking kills. Historically it has demonstrated that its support for measures to cut tobacco use by young people are correct and necessary.
The same was true with the Tobacco Act. Mr. Speaker, I am sure you recall the outcome of that debate. Reformers, New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives stood with us on it. They stood with the 91% of Canadians who support efforts by government to discourage young people from becoming addicted to tobacco. They stood with the 73% of Canadians who support efforts to discourage smoking among people who already smoke.
It was only the Bloc that opposed the Tobacco Act, and that was largely because of concerns about the impact of sponsorship restrictions on events. Now that the Parti Quebecois government has moved in the same direction as we moved a year ago, I am confident that opposition will change there as well.
Of course, some people outside this parliament expressed concerns about sponsorship restrictions. Event organizers were concerned that they would not be able to line up new sponsors quickly enough. Some people in communities that look to these events for tourism dollars were concerned about the possible loss of those marquee events.
A particular area that drew some attention was the impact of the Tobacco Act on motor sports. If you have ever watched a race you will have noticed that every possible space is adorned with advertising: the cars, the racing suits, the facilities. They are all full of logos of sponsors. Those logos are often of tobacco brands that Canadians, Americans, Europeans and Asians use. Because of the concerns of event organizers it was agreed that the federal government would take another look at tobacco sponsorship and motor sports. But I must add that this should never have been seen as a carte blanche to water down our commitment to reduce tobacco use.
At that time we said that we would respect the charter of rights and freedoms, that we would respect international standards and that we would respect the health obligations and objectives of the Tobacco Act. As we consulted we heard from event organizers and we heard from health groups that were concerned with the potential influence of sponsorship on young people.
Through the process we remained determined to make this act even more solid than it was already. In the end we decided that we could not and would not create one set of rules for some motor sports events and another for everyone else. We recognized that we did and had to treat all currently sponsored events equally.
We also determined that we were being presented with an opportunity to really fine-tune the sponsorship provisions of the Tobacco Act, and the result is Bill C-42.
I will now turn to the regime the bill sets out.
At the core of this bill is a five year transition period. During that time we will move to a total ban on the display of tobacco brand elements in sponsorship promotions.
There are two types of events for the purpose of this bill. The first type includes events that were in existence and had tobacco company sponsors before April 25, 1997. If parliament agrees, these events would begin with a two year period under the status quo. Tobacco promotion would be able to continue for that two years and we would continue to allow off site and on site promotions.
The next phase for those grandfathered events would last three years. On site promotions involving tobacco product related brand elements would continue at those events, but these promotions could only be in place for the duration of the event. We would close off opportunities for off site promotion and we would impose a 90:10 rule that appears in the Tobacco Act on those that are permitted. That is to say, only the bottom 10% of the space in the promotional material can display tobacco brand elements.
Direct mailings to identified adults would be permitted, but banners with large tobacco logos on lampposts all over town would not be. Advertizing in publications with primarily adult readership would be permitted, but placement in corner stores of posters with cigarette names in bold, big type would end. Promotions such as tent cards in bars, which are legally off limits to young people, would be acceptable, but the same tent cards in regular restaurants would not be.
In short we would cut the tobacco marketers' off-site access to young people dramatically. That stage would end after three years, as I said. That brings us to five years from the date this amendment to the Tobacco Act would come into force. On that date, tobacco sponsorship promotions would end.
The second group of events are those in which sponsorships began on or after April 25, 1997. Those events will not be grandfathered. The restrictions currently in the Tobacco Act would apply to these events and after five years, the days of complacent sponsorship promotions will end.
Under the timetable that we hope parliament will allow us to pursue, in the latter part of the year 2003 there will be a total ban on tobacco sponsorship promotions whether on-site or off-site. There will be no legal ability to display tobacco related product brand elements on sponsorship promotions. Tobacco brand elements will not be associated with permanent arts and sports facilities.
That ban is more than even the Tobacco Act originally envisaged. That act would have simply brought in the 90-10 rule as a new status quo.
We have gone one step further in protecting the health of Canadians by cutting any ties between appealing and wholesome activities and tobacco consumption.
Some may ask why we have decided on a period of five years. The five year transition period provides event organizers with plenty of time and plenty of opportunities to seek alternative sponsors. In our consultations with those organizers, it was clear that if we were determined to eliminate the use of sponsorship as a promotional vehicle for tobacco products, and we are, then they wanted time to make alternative arrangements and they could. In fact I know that process has already begun.
For example, we as a government are very pleased that Air Canada will become the new title sponsor of the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix next year. We believe that the five year time frame will allow other event organizers to demonstrate to other potential sponsors how valuable an association with their event can be.
If this was all we were doing on tobacco control, it would be noteworthy enough. Yet we are actually doing far more and that is why Canada is recognized as a world leader in tobacco control. Indeed we keep track of the steps that other governments are taking on this issue. I want to tell my hon. colleagues on both sides of this chamber that our approach is consistent with evolving international standards. Let me offer some examples.
The European Union recently announced that it is moving in the same direction as we are. It intends to ban tobacco sponsored promotions by the year 2006. It intends to pursue a transitional strategy on the way to that ban.
Australia announced last week that it too will totally prohibit tobacco sponsored promotions by the year 2006.
The United States is moving ahead on actions that will limit the exposure of children to tobacco promotion in ways that are consistent with much that is already in our Tobacco Act.
Canada is on a course to beat them all. Our legislation is among the toughest and most far reaching in the world. The initiatives that the Tobacco Act enables us to take include the regulation of the product, its components and emissions, more comprehensive reporting requirements for tobacco companies and stricter regulations on sales of tobacco products to minors.
It is also backed up by our continuing efforts to promote and protect health through anti-tobacco initiatives. For example last June we announced $100 million in spending on the tobacco control initiative. We are proud of that. That money followed through on a commitment that our government made during last year's election. It was a commitment that we were proud to keep because it was really an investment in the health of Canadians.
The tobacco control initiative is co-ordinated and it is comprehensive. It pays particular attention to tobacco use among children and teens, groups vulnerable to taking up smoking.
Reducing the health damage caused by tobacco consumption is increasingly an issue, not only for the federal government but for our colleagues in the provincial governments as well.
A New Democratic government in British Columbia has taken legal steps against tobacco companies because of the costs their products place on the health care system. In Quebec, the Parti Quebecois government has passed strong legislation that among other things restricts tobacco sales to minors and the promotion of tobacco products.
Both provincial strategies complement our own actions at the federal level. They complement our legislative and health promotion approaches. They demonstrate, just as the history of tobacco control legislation does here, that this is not a partisan issue. It is a health issue.
After all, that is the purpose of this bill, a short and straightforward piece of legislation that establishes a new and stricter framework for tobacco promotion through sponsorship and paves the way for the elimination of sponsorship by the year 2003.
It positions us to be heard and be ahead of the United States, most European states and Australia, all countries that have their own solid records on tobacco control.
The action that this bill proposes, together with the restrictions set out in the Tobacco Act as well as our tobacco control initiative are individual parts of a unified strategy.
We are continuing to work and invest significant resources to reduce smoking in Canada. We are taking action that we hope and believe will help reduce the percentage of young people who take up smoking.
This bill then is ultimately about the health of Canadians. It is about making a strong piece of legislation even stronger, all the while making it more realistic. It is a bill that I believe merits the support of all parties in this House.