Vaping advocacy groups are pushing back against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government for jacking up the tax on vaping and smoking. Advocates have expressed concern people who have given up smoking cigarettes by switching to vaping could abandon the less toxic alternative if it gets too expensive and slammed the Trudeau Liberals for putting its $1.5 billion Pharmacare plan “squarely on the shoulders of Canadians who vape and smoke.”This week, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed the federal budget, which included a 12% tax increase on vaping products and an extra $5.49 per carton of tobacco. The Trudeau Liberals hope to gain another $1.7 billion from the tax hike. “The Liberal government is living in a fantasy land and is banking on Canadians who vape to return to smoking,” said Rights4Vapers in a statement.“Its strategy to have tobacco and vapour products excise increases pay for Pharmacare will fail. It unfairly puts the responsibility for paying for the new drug plan program squarely on the shoulders of Canadians who vape and smoke.""And it is a pipe dream.”The group’s spokesperson, Maria Papaioannoy, said “If the federal government thinks that Canadians who vape and smoke will fund the new drug plan, I have a bridge to sell them.”Noting Health Minister Mark Holland’s comments from March that he plans to ban flavoured vapour products, which Rights4Vapers argues will “cripple the legal market and turn over sales to the untaxed black market,” Papaioannoy said, “We have so many questions.”“Where will the revenue come from when Canadians who vape buy their product from criminals? How can they tax a product that will not exist after the minister of health bans flavours, unless they think all of us who vape will start smoking again?”“In addition, the planned 12% increase in excise on vapour products is completely disproportionate to the harm reduction potential these products offer. Why is the increase in excise on a carton of deadly cigarettes only about 4%? The increase in excise for vaping is three times as much as cigarettes.”“Increasing the price of vapour products will either drive Canadians who vape back to smoking, which will cost the health care system more, or to the black market. How does this benefit public health or government coffers?” “Maybe they think people who vape will just go back to smoking. The industry estimates that over four billion cigarettes will return to the market, sold and taxed. That’s where the money will come from.”“The budget is based on fairness, but only on the backs of those addicted to nicotine. Once again further pushing marginalized people aside and talking away autonomy. Clearly, people who smoke don’t matter."“Vaping can help save lives, but it needs to be detached from smoking. It is not smoking. It is at least 95% less harmful than smoking and millions of Canadians have chosen vaping to improve their health. The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) said keeping vaping cheaper than smoking is an important incentive to keep people to choose the “less harmful product,” and that adding more tax “eliminates that incentive and punishes people who smoke for trying to end their addiction to combustible tobacco and improve their health.”CVA, in response to last year’s tax implemented by the Government of Quebec, said these kinds of tax increases “prioritize short-term financial gains over longer-term improvements to public health and reductions in health care costs.”“Nicotine vaping is widely recognized as significantly less harmful than smoking,” noted CVA, adding that the Royal College of Physicians has said for seven years running “vaping is unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking.”“If nicotine vaping becomes more expensive than smoking, as some health organizations have advocated for, sales of cigarettes will increase and drive the rapidly expanding illicit vape market.”The Canadian Lung Association (CLA), citing 2018 data by the National Academies of Science, said studies “found that aerosols emitted from e-cigarettes are substantially less complex than tobacco smoke.”While warning of the health consequences of both products, the CLA said vaping could be a reasonable, non-permanent alternative to people who are trying to quit smoking. “Although toxic substances have been identified in electronic cigarettes, the amounts exposed to users under typical circumstances are less than those found with combustible tobacco smoke.”“When considered in the context of a harm reduction strategy, switching to e-cigarettes in the short-term may be a less harmful alternative than continued smoking for an individual. However, this statement needs to be tempered by the fact that the harms continue to evolve and have not been fully evaluated to date.” There is not widespread agreement on the issue, however. Industry experts say at the end of the day, vaping will still be cheaper than smoking, and if they wish, Canadians can order vaping products elsewhere.Sara MacIntyre, Convenience Industry of Canada Council (CICC) VP of Western Canada told the Western Standard, "people will look for other vaping options,” pointing out vaping products “are readily available by ordering through Canada Post." “You can get all the contraband tobacco mailed to you too. There is no age verification and lots of advertising that is illegal.” “We’ve been trying to highlight this to the (federal government) with no luck or interest (from them).”Dr. Cynthia Callard of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada told the Western Standard the Trudeau Liberals’ new vaping tax works out to about 24 cents more per 2,000 puffs. It’s an increase to the existing tax, which is a minute difference when it comes to the actual product, Callard noted. “Even contraband cigarettes are more expensive per puff than vaping, increase on the tax included – it works out to about 24 cents per container of vaping liquid.”
