Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I rise today to speak on Bill C-26. I thank my colleague, the member for Richmond—Arthabaska, for his comments and personal reflections on this issue.
It is important to realize that smoking is on the rise in Canada, particularly among young people. That is the most troubling part of this whole trend relative to smoking. In 1990 in the age group between 15 and 19, 21% of that age group was smoking. That rose to 28% by 1999.
Let us look at our strategy to combat smoking. We have seen the banning of sponsorship of auto races and cultural events across the country. It is questionable whether or not that ban has helped reduce smoking. What it has done is reduce funding for cultural events across Canada. I question the government's strategy on whether or not banning sponsorships of cultural activities has made a big difference in reducing smoking. That has been part of the government's strategy.
Another one strategy has been these garish, egregious packages which have pictures of gangrenous feet and cancerous lungs. Now we have teenagers trading them like playing cards, with one teenager saying to another “I'll give you a gangrenous foot for a cancerous lung”. That sort of thing is going on, so I sometimes question whether or not that initiative is achieving its mark.
One jurisdiction that has made a difference in reducing the incidences of smoking with young people is California. We should take a serious look at how their best practices achieved that reduction in smoking. Certainly its advertising and promotion was very sophisticated. There was not a banning of sponsorship of events by the cigarette companies. Those have continued. The warnings on the cigarette packages are discreet but we have seen in recent years a 43% decline in smoking in California. The big difference is the funding of educational programs.
In Canada the government's latest initiative will result in what I think works out to about $2.33 per Canadian per year. In California the amount of funding devoted to smoking cessation or anti-smoking initiatives, from a marketing and educational perspective, is closer to $5 per person.
California focused on community groups, schools, the education system and on trying to avoid the behaviour from being developed in the first place. We really should take a hard look at California and other jurisdictions that have been successful in this light.
The government has the best of intentions with a lot of these initiatives. That is not to be questioned. What is more important than just having the best of intentions is having great results. We should take a serious look at a more significant investment on the education side and working with the provinces to ensure that we are doing everything we can to prevent young people from smoking.
As I said, I personally question the banning of the sponsorship of sports and cultural activities. I do not think that has had an impact. I stand to be corrected. I also question the garish packages with the pictures on them. I think that has perversely in its own way, through some type of reverse psychology, created an attraction to young people who, for some reason that is beyond me, are drawn to these sickening packages.
Whether or not the price will affect people's decisions, I can only speak in an anecdotal way from constituents who have told me that increases in cigarettes prices make a difference. They make a difference in their lives in terms of the affordability. It is intuitive to expect that raising prices will have an impact on reducing the actual incidence of smoking.
I do not smoke any more. When did I never bought them, I used to bum them off my colleague from Richmond—Arthabaska, so the price was never a factor for me. However smoking caused a few friendships. It was my efforts that slowly reduced the incidence of smoking in our caucus because none of the other members could afford to smoke and give me free ones. There are reasons why I am finance critic. Parsimony may be one of them.
I am very pleased that I have quit smoking. I feel very good about that. I am looking forward to the day when our caucus is completely smoke free. We are nearing that day very quickly. By that I mean I want the member for Richmond—Arthabaska to quit smoking, not that I want him to leave caucus. I see the hon. member for Compton—Stanstead opposite and I just wanted to make sure that I was being absolutely perfectly clear on this.
In any case, I commend the government's efforts in this regard. It is something of which we have to do more. I question some of the directions and initiatives, but I certainly do not question or dispute the positive intentions of the government. I just hope we are doing everything we can to fight this scourge on the health of Canadian citizens and to foster a healthier Canada, as we have now entered the 21st century. We have to work together to ensure that happens. As policy-makers and as leaders, we have to ensure that we do everything we can to ensure that. With health costs rising, the one way we can make a difference is to reduce the incidence of smoking, particularly with young people.