Quebec's ban on flavoured vaping products marked its third anniversary on October 31, 2026, and Quebec's own numbers suggest most vapers are ignoring it.
According to 2026 data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec, cited by the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac in an October 30 release, 77% of people who vape use banned flavours. The coalition, which supports the ban, blamed circumvention by legal and illegal sellers.
Ottawa wants similar rules nationally but has left them hanging for more than five years. Health Canada's 2026 to 2028 Forward Regulatory Plan shows rules limiting vape flavours to tobacco, mint, and menthol were pre-published in the Canada Gazette on June 19, 2021. Timing for final publication is "to be determined," and Health Minister Marjorie Michel's department offers no date.
The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) said in an October 28 release that flavour bans hand the market to organized crime, pointing to Quebec, the Netherlands, Australia, and Mexico. The group cited a national study that found 68% of adults who used a vape in their latest quit attempt relied on flavours the proposed federal rules would eliminate.
Citing Health Canada figures showing youth vaping fell from 13.2% in 2019 to 5.8% in 2024, CVA President Sam Tam questioned the push for prohibition.
"Health Canada has already implemented measures that have real results," said Tam. "Rather than pushing for more bans, shouldn't we be evaluating what's working and building on those successes?"
Adult smokers have the most to lose. Cochrane's living review on e-cigarettes for quitting, updated August 26, 2026, pooled 80 randomized trials with 29,861 participants. It found high-certainty evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes help more smokers quit than patches and gum — about four more people per 100.
"Based on the consistency of the findings here, it's clear that they are a proven and viable option for people wishing to quit traditional cigarettes," said senior author Jamie Hartmann-Boyce of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Hartmann-Boyce warned that unlicensed e-cigarettes "are potentially dangerous, with issues including unstable batteries and harmful chemicals."