Tag: Canada

Illicit Market Thriving After Flavor Ban: ITCAN

Image: Ahmed
One year after Quebec banned non-tobacco flavored vapes, most vapers are buying such products illegally in the province, according to Imperial Tobacco Canada (ITCAN).
In a survey carried out by Leger, 61 percent of vapers said that they purchased non-tobacco flavored vapor products in the past 12 months. Forty percent of those respondents said that they purchased an illegal flavored vapor product from a vape shop, and 33 percent of those respondents said they purchased flavored vapor products online. Forty-seven percent of those respondents said they knew it was illegal when they purchased a flavored vapor product
“If the government’s objective was to create an untaxed and unregulated vapor market, then well done and mission accomplished,” said ITCAN Vice President of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Eric Gagnon in a statement.
ITCAN attributed the problem in part to weak enforcement. “A report from the Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux (MSSS) website reveals that only 150 (38 percent of all vape shops) have been inspected by MSSS,” the company wrote. “Worse yet, very few fines have been issued with reports showing only 28 of those 150 received fines, even though more than 90 percent are uncompliant.”
ITCAN urged the government to train inspectors, issue fines heavy enough to deter illegal players and conduct an “enforcement blitz” to demonstrate the gravity of the situation, among other suggestions.
November 1, 2024
Canada’s Health Minister: “Flavor Ban Coming Soon”
The minister of mental health and addictions says the federal government will ban most vape flavors across Canada soon — more than three years after Ottawa first promised to bring in the regulations.
“We have made a commitment from the start to restrict flavors. We haven’t wavered from that,” Ya’ara Saks told CBC News.
“We will have this in place soon. I don’t anticipate this is going to take much longer.” She did not specify a timeline.
Saks’ promise comes after a coalition of anti-tobacco health groups held a press conference in Ottawa earlier this month to call on Saks to introduce the ban swiftly or resign.
They accused her of bowing to vaping industry pressure by failing to finalize the regulations this spring, as the federal government had planned.
October 21, 2024
Canadian Trade Group Supports Flavored Vapes

Photo: DD Images
The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) has expressed concern over recent attempts by tobacco control lobbyists to convince the government to ban vape flavors nationwide. According to the trade group, such a ban would have negative public health consequences and undermine Canada’s goal of reducing smoking rates to less than 5 percent by 2035.
“We must acknowledge and not ignore that more than 1.5 million adult vapors in Canada use flavored vaping products to stop smoking,” the CVA wrote in a statement.
“We agree underage youth should not vape; however, more needs to be done through education and providing the necessary tools for parents, teachers, coaches and community members, to understand the underlying issues as to why youth are vaping and providing solutions to solve their nicotine dependence.”
According to the CVA, Canada already has some of the best vape regulations globally, covering labeling, packaging, marketing, promotions, reporting and nicotine concentration limits. The group also urged the tobacco control lobbyist to consider the risks of the illicit market.
“The bullying tactics of anti-harm reduction lobbyists pressuring Minister Saks and Health Canada to act quickly, will only help grow the black market of vaping products,” the CVA wrote. “This will make vaping more accessible to youth, at much lower prices and greater risk to their health.”
October 8, 2024
Canada Flavored Pouch Ban Begins Wednesday

Canada’s federal government will impose new restrictions beginning Aug. 28 on nicotine pouches, making it illegal to sell them anywhere but from behind a pharmacy counter.
The pouches, which carry the brand name Zonnic, will be completely banned from convenience store and gas station shelves. Berry Frost and Tropic Breeze flavors will be recalled, and only menthol—and mint-flavored pouches will be allowed in pharmacies.
“All the stuff that’s clearly designed to target youth — it’s over,” Health Minister Mark Holland told CBC News.
Ottawa has been promising to crack down on sales of nicotine pouches for nearly 10 months. National health groups have warned about the risk of teenagers using them and becoming addicted to nicotine.
“It has been so deeply disturbing to see so many young people becoming addicted to these nicotine pouches who’ve never had any interaction with cigarettes,” Holland said.
Holland has accused Imperial Tobacco, the cigarette manufacturer that makes the pouches, of using a loophole in Canadian law to get approval from Health Canada.
The federal government says it will give Imperial Tobacco six months to change its packaging and advertising. The new containers must include an addiction warning on the front label and any advertising that could appeal to youth must be changed by the end of February.
Holland said the new measures may come too late for some.
“I’m very concerned that there are kids who are already addicted. I am very concerned that tobacco companies have already achieved their goal,” he said. “It repulses me.”
Eric Gagnon, vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Imperial Tobacco Canada, believes Holland has a “personal vendetta” against the company, which went through a two-year approval process to legally sell nicotine pouches.
“Apparently, because we’re a tobacco company, we’re treated differently than anybody else,” he told CBC News. “The biggest losers right now are the adult smokers that have been using Zonnic.”
August 26, 2024
‘Carcinogens On Permitted Vapor Additives List’

Photo: New Africa
Canada’s proposed list of permitted vapor product additives includes dangerous ingredients, according to Imperial Tobacco Canada (ITCAN).
“To put it bluntly, the list contains at least one known substance that could cause cancer,” said ITCAN Vice President, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Eric Gagnon in a statement.
According to ITCAN, several ingredients on the flavor ban proposal list of permitted ingredients are substances that its parent company, British American Tobacco, categorically avoids in its vaping products.
The company says BAT’s toxicological risk assessment prevents the use of substances classified as having carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMR) properties, as per the Globally Harmonized System for classification and labelling of substances.
“It is shocking that the government would include a proven and classified CMR substance in its lists of permitted additives for vaping products,” ITCAN wrote on its website. “The effect of a regulation that formally permits such ingredients is simply an encouragement to manufacturers—particularly smaller producers with limited access to scientific literature—to use an inherently unsafe substance in a product that is designed to be inhaled into the lungs.”
Gagnon cited isophorone as an example. “This substance is classified by the European Union as cancer-causing and acutely toxic. It is also banned by Canadian food and drug regulations from use in human cosmetics,” he said.
“We encourage Health Canada to reconsider the list and consult with experts to determine the best way forward.”
June 14, 2024
Provinces in Canada Seek Generational Ban Comments
Newfoundland and Labrador flag against the sunset sky. (Credit: Ecrow)
Newfoundland and Labrador is considering following along with recent announcements in the U.K.
The provincial government in Canda will ask residents this month for public feedback on a number of increased nicotine regulations, including the possibility of a total ban on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to people born after a specific date, according to media reports.
The legislation would eventually phase out the sale of cigarettes permanently in Newfoundland and Labrador. It follows a similar move in Prince Edward Island (PEI), where a “Tobacco-Free Generation” proposal was suggested in a consultation paper earlier this year.
A similar concept was tried – and swiftly repealed – in New Zealand, and the issue is expected to return to the United Kingdom’s House of Commons after the country’s July election.
June 5, 2024
Canada Relaunches Three-Year-Old Flavor Ban

Photo: DD Images
Canada is set to enact a three-year-old flavor ban, according to Vaping360. The regulations were first published in June 2021 in the Canada Gazette but then never went into effect. Now, however, Health Minister Mark Holland has reinvigorated the ban.
Holland previously worked at Heart and Stroke, where he was the national director of children and youth. “I was with Heart and Stroke when we dealt with the issue of vaping,” he said, “and there were many voices at that time, when information was uncertain, who said, ‘Let this exist as a cessation tool. Don’t take action.’ The result of that, unfortunately, was that the tobacco industry was able to addict a whole new cohort of young people—who had no exposure to nicotine—to something that’s absolutely deadly for their health. It has had very injurious outcomes for our health system.”
Vaping proponents warned that the measure could backfire. “As presented, Minister Holland’s proposal will not achieve the desired public health objectives and could, on the contrary, seriously harm a significant number of Canadian adult ex-smokers, the Vaping Industry Trade Association (VITA) wrote in a press release.
“This appears to be a personal legacy project for the Minister of Health, supported strongly by his former peers at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Lung Association and some smaller anti-smoking NGOs [nongovernmental organizations],” said VITA Managing Director Thomas Kirsop.
The ban would give manufacturers a list of fewer than 100 allowable flavoring ingredients that can only be used to create e-liquid in tobacco, mint and menthol flavors. Sweeteners of any kind would be banned. The regulations will also “prescribe sensory attributes standards to prevent a sensory perception other than one that is typical of tobacco or mint/menthol.”
April 11, 2024
Quebec Urged to Crack Down on Flavored Vapes

Eric Gagnon, Vice-President of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at Imperial Tobacco Canada, urges the government to buckle down on enforcing its law during the press conference. (Photo: Imperial Tobacco Canada)
Imperial Tobacco Canada is urging the government of Quebec to crack down on illegal flavored vaping products.
Three months after the law banning flavors in vaping products came into force, flavored e-cigarettes remain available at a large number of retail outlets that either infringe on the law or are using a variety of tactics to circumvent the law, according to Imperial Tobacco Canada, which is part of British American Tobacco.
“We are aware of the growing concern with the proliferation of products that circumvent the regulations, resulting in the creation of an illicit market,” said Imperial Vice-President of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Eric Gagnon in a statement.
“We recently identified over 200 sales outlets that sell non-compliant vaping products. These stores have not adjusted to the new regulations and continue to offer a wide range of flavored products, including those that exceed the maximum permitted quantity of 2 ml.”
According to Imperial, these stores now also sell flavor enhancers as a way to circumvent the new regulation. “Given that these enhancers are not intended to be vaped, they can pose serious risks to consumers who use them,” the company wrote in a press note. “It is also because of a similar illegal market that a wave of lung diseases spread between 2019 and 2020 in the U.S., claiming 68 lives.”
Imperial says that instead of meeting its objective of tackling vaping among young people, the government has created a thriving illicit market.
During a Jan. 21 appearance on the talk show Tout le monde en parle Health Minister Christian Dubé blamed tobacco companies for the situation.
Imperial Tobacco Canada said it strongly refutes the allegations. “As a responsible company that fully complies with the regulations in place, we denounce these abuses and reiterate our call for stronger enforcement of the law,” said. Gagnon. “We warned the minister’s office several months ago about the inevitable collateral damage that would result from such a regulation being implemented. Unfortunately, nothing was done, and the situation persists as a result.”
February 2, 2024
Ontario to Double Taxes on Vapes Sold in Province

Ontario, in partnership with Canada’s national government, will double the tax on all vaping products sold in the province.
The federal/provincial tax partnership scheme that was announced in 2022 allows provinces to double the current federal vape tax and keep half the proceeds, according to Vaping360.
The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) urged the federal government to reconsider its proposal to impose an additional provincial levy, as this would effectively double the already substantial tax burden. “The CVA suggests a more equitable approach where the federal government shares the revenue generated by the current levy with the provinces,” the industry group wrote in a statement.
“With the introduction of the excise tax, depending on product type, vape products are now almost as expensive as cigarettes despite the significant reduction in risk,” the statement says.
The CVA cautioned that the increased tax may lead to more illicit trade. “Legal businesses will find it nearly impossible to compete with the unregulated market that remains largely unchecked. The consequence of such punitive taxation will be widespread business closures, significant job losses and an increase in criminal activity.”
“The CVA encourages the province to leverage its negotiating influence with the federal government to establish a fair revenue-sharing framework for the existing tax revenue. Preserving the regulated market, rather than destroying it, will lead to higher tax revenues. The additional revenue generated can be used by the province to increase enforcement resources and support educational programs for youth,” said Darryl Tempest, government relations counsel to the CVA.
November 7, 2023
Quebec: Vaping Flavor Ban Goes Into Effect Today

Credit: CL-Medien
Vapers of scared about possibly having to return to combustible cigarettes in Quebec as the Canadian city’s flavor ban for vaping products takes effect today, Oct. 31.
Quebec’s ban includes vaping products with flavors other than tobacco and will prohibit e-liquid sold in bottles with a capacity greater than 30 mL and prefilled devices with a capacity greater than 2 mL.
The flavor ban was announced in a draft published in April. More than 30,000 citizens of Quebec commented on the proposed ban, according to the Quebec Vaping Rights Coalition, but the health ministry reportedly didn’t make any changes to the rules in response.
Quebec is the largest province in Canada to enact a flavor ban. Four other provinces and territories have flavor bans in place, and one has passed a ban but has not set an effective date yet. Three other provinces restrict flavored products to adult-only stores.
The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) has expressed concerns to the Quebec government, arguing that this regulation will not achieve its intended goal of curbing youth experimentation.
According to the CVA, the consequences will include the closure of specialty vape shops within the province, the loss of over 1000 jobs, and a shift in consumer demand towards foreign suppliers and the illicit market.
“It’s high time for provinces like Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI to re-evaluate their stance and stop yielding to the influence of big tobacco companies. These regions must come to the realization that they are inadvertently supporting the very issues they claim to be combating,” said Darryl Tempest, government relations counsel to the CVA.
The available data consistently finds that flavor bans fail to effectively protect youth and lead to increased tobacco sales among both young people and adults.
October 31, 2023