Health Canada’s new progress report on Canada’s Tobacco Strategy is meant to be a victory lap. Smoking rates are falling. Youth smoking is near historic lows. Ottawa is congratulating itself for moving Canada toward its goal of reducing tobacco use to under five percent by 2035.
But buried in the fine print is a glaring omission. The federal government still refuses to break down which nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) actually help smokers quit and which ones do not.
That silence is not accidental.
According to the report, about 300,000 Canadians quit smoking in 2024. More than half quit without any help. About 25% used NRTs, lumped together as a single category. Another 21% said they used vaping products to quit smoking.
That is where the detail ends.
Nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, sprays, pouches, prescription medications, and vaping are all thrown into broad buckets. No breakdown. No comparison. No outcomes data. Nothing that would tell smokers which tools give them the best chance of success.
For a government that claims to be “guided by science,” that is a remarkable gap.
Health Canada knows better. The evidence on smoking cessation is extensive, peer-reviewed, and increasingly Canadian-specific. And it consistently shows that not all quitting tools perform equally in the real world.
A major randomized controlled trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine found smokers using e-cigarettes were nearly twice as likely to quit as those using nicotine patches or gum.
That finding is echoed in the Cochrane Review, which concluded that nicotine vaping products are more effective than traditional NRTs for smoking cessation.
Canadian data tell the same story.
A peer-reviewed analysis published by the Public Health Agency of Canada found that adults who used nicotine vaping products during their most recent quit attempt were more likely to report successfully quitting smoking than those who did not. The study also found that many quitters relied on flavours that would be restricted under proposed federal regulations. A point rarely acknowledged in public messaging.
Canadian modelling research adds further weight. The Canada Smoking and Vaping Model, published in BMJ Public Health, projects that legal access to vaping products is associated with lower smoking prevalence and fewer smoking-related deaths over time.
Nicotine pouches, meanwhile, are treated by Ottawa as a regulatory nuisance rather than a potential harm-reduction tool.
Health Canada approved ZONNIC tobacco-free nicotine pouches in 2023 for adult smokers, yet restricts them to behind-the-counter sales at pharmacies while offering little public guidance on their role in quitting. Research on nicotine pouches is newer but growing.
A clinical study published in Addiction found that nicotine pouches were well tolerated and helped reduce cigarette consumption among smokers, suggesting they may serve as a lower-risk alternative to smoking, even if long-term quit outcomes require further study.
A systematic review summarized by Cochrane concluded that while evidence on nicotine pouches and quitting is still emerging, there is no indication of serious short-term harm, which is a notable contrast to combustible tobacco.
Researchers writing in Nicotine & Tobacco Research have also found nicotine pouches deliver nicotine effectively while exposing users to far fewer toxic compounds than cigarettes, reinforcing their potential as a reduced-risk option.
Despite this evidence, Ottawa continues to frame vaping and nicotine pouches primarily as public health threats, while traditional NRTs are treated as default solutions, even though many smokers fail with gum and patches alone.
If nicotine itself were the real enemy, that posture might make sense. But it is not. Combustion is what kills. Smoke is what causes cancer, heart disease, and lung failure.
Public Health England has long concluded vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking. A position that has not been overturned by subsequent evidence.
Health Canada’s own data show smoking — not nicotine — is responsible for roughly 46,000 deaths every year. That is the crisis. That is the metric that matters.
And yet, instead of clearly telling smokers which tools work best, the government muddies the water.
Why?
Because acknowledging the success of vaping and nicotine pouches would force Ottawa to confront an uncomfortable truth. Its regulatory war on these products may be slowing progress, not accelerating it.
The report admits that more than one-in-five successful quitters used vaping to stop smoking. That is not fringe behaviour. That is mainstream cessation happening despite flavour bans in some provinces, tax hikes, advertising restrictions, and relentless fear-based messaging.
Imagine what would happen if Ottawa stopped fighting these tools and started supporting them.
Imagine a report that honestly compared quit rates between patches, gum, nicotine pouches, and vaping. Imagine public health messaging that treated adult smokers like adults. Imagine policy focused on outcomes instead of optics.
Smoking rates would fall faster. Lives would be saved sooner.
Canada’s Tobacco Strategy is working but not because Ottawa has everything figured out. It is working because Canadians are finding their own way out of smoking, often in spite of government policy.
Health Canada owes the public the full truth. Not selective data. Not moral lectures. Just clear evidence about what works.
Until then, the silence speaks volumes.
