The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) writes in response to the recent editorial "Ottawa should ban flavoured vapes." While we share the Editorial Board's commitment to preventing youth nicotine use, the editorial relies on outdated data, mischaracterizes the federal government's regulatory record, and completely ignores the nearly two million adult Canadians who rely on vaping and on flavours specifically to remain smoke-free. We will respectfully set the record straight. Youth vaping is in sharp decline, not rising The editorial cites a figure of 14% of youth aged 15 to 19 vaping in the past 30 days to suggest an escalating crisis. That figure dates from 2019 to 2022. The most recent data from the Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth (CHSCY) shows a dramatically different picture: past-30-day vaping among youth aged 12–17 stood at 5.8% in 2024, a near-60% decline from the 2019 peak of 13.2%. Health Canada met its short-term goal of less than 10% youth vaping by 2025, ahead of schedule. Policy must respond to the reality on the ground, not the reality of five years ago. The trendline is unambiguous: youth vaping is falling fast under the current regulatory framework. On this evidence alone, there is no justification for a federal flavour ban. At the same time, youth smoking rates in Canada are at historic lows, when a gateway effect would show an increase in youth smoking..The federal government has not "failed to act" The editorial characterizes Ottawa's record since 2021 as inaction because draft flavour regulations were not enacted. In fact, Health Canada has consulted extensively with stakeholders, the public, and the Scientific Advisory Board for the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA) review, as it pursues a smoking rate below 5% by 2035. Since 2020, the federal government has implemented: Vaping Products Labelling and Packaging Regulations (2020): mandatory health warnings and nicotine concentration disclosures.Nicotine Concentration in Vaping Products Regulations (2021): a 20 mg/mL cap designed to reduce youth appeal and addiction potential.Vaping Products Promotion Regulations: requirements that prevent youth exposure to vaping products and advertising.TVPA Section 8: a federal ban on sales to anyone under 18, with penalties of up to $3,000 for a first offence and $50,000 for subsequent offences.Contraventions Regulations Amendment (January 2026): TVPA ticketable offences expanded from 10 to 104; fines were increased from $100–$500 to $500–$3,000. An active compliance and enforcement program, involving retailer inspections, product seizures, warning letters, and recommended prosecutions.This is a comprehensive, multi-layered federal framework that has contributed directly to the 60% decline in youth vaping since 2019. Notably, the editorial's own call for stronger enforcement and meaningful penalties has already been answered by the January 2026 amendment, a development the editorial did not acknowledge..A flavour ban would harm millions of adult Canadians Entirely absent from the editorial is any serious consideration of adult tobacco harm reduction. Health Canada's 2024 data show that 1.9 million adult Canadians vape, the majority of whom are former or current smokers using vaping as a tool to move away from combustible tobacco, the leading cause of preventable death in this country, claiming more than 46,000 lives each year. Flavours are central to that success. Evidence published by the Public Health Agency of Canada from the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey found that fruit flavours were the most commonly used flavour by adults and that 68% of adult vapers relied on flavours to remain smoke-free. A ban limiting the market to tobacco and menthol would strip away the very products that keep over a million former smokers from relapsing or push them toward an unregulated illicit market with no nicotine limits, labelling standards, or age verification. Adults leaving cigarettes behind do not want products that remind them of cigarettes; that is precisely the point.The Path Forward The CVA supports evidence-based measures that keep vaping products out of the hands of youth: strict age verification, meaningful penalties for non-compliant retailers, and strong enforcement of the existing rules and regulations. What the evidence does not support is prohibition that would punish adult former smokers for a youth vaping problem already in steady decline. Canada has met its youth vaping target ahead of schedule. The appropriate response is to sustain and enforce the framework that achieved this result, not to dismantle the tobacco harm reduction pathway relied upon by nearly two million adults. Sincerely, Sam TamPresident, Canadian Vaping Association
