Provinces need to spend tobacco settlement wisely

By Lethbridge Herald on October 2, 2025.

Doug Roth, Andrew Seale and Sarah Butson
Quoi Media

Humans are cursed with sometimes being short-sighted. Of course, it can be useful. Better not to be so focused on how to invent the wheel that you don’t notice the saber-tooth tiger about to eat you for lunch.

But Canadian healthcare can’t afford to be short-sighted. It requires long-term vision and investment to ensure the health of future generations.

We have some good examples of what can be achieved with this approach. Thanks to a long-term commitment, Canada has made progress in the past 50 years against some of the most urgent medical issues: cancer, heart and lung diseases. This is due in large part to innovations in research, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. We have also seen societal shifts in lifestyle behaviours such as diet and exercise and supportive laws and policies.

However, despite these considerable advancements, all three diseases continue to be leading causes of illness and shortened lives among Canadians. We can do more, and the pressing issue of preventing these diseases in the first place should be one of the priorities.

Which is why today, as provincial governments across Canada are starting to receive the initial payments from the tobacco industry because of the health crisis tobacco companies created, the governments need to invest a significant amount of those funds to prevent and reduce tobacco use and nicotine addiction, including addressing youth vaping.

These funds come from the historic $32.5 billion settlement reached with tobacco companies, following government and class action lawsuits seeking compensation for harms and healthcare costs for Canadians who used tobacco products and suffered the health consequences.

Collectively, the provinces and territories will receive $24.7 billion — the rest will go to individual class action and other victims, and to set up a $1 billion foundation.

Governments will be tempted to use these funds to solve their budget problems. However, long-term planning that supports better health is needed. It is crucial that adequate and sufficient funds from the settlement be invested in more comprehensive plans and programs to control the use of tobacco and new nicotine products, including e-cigarettes, now and into the future, with the goal of creating a tobacco and nicotine-free generation.

Long-term vision would see settlement funds used to prevent generations of further harm, not just treat its consequences.

There’s a simple but tragic reason to do so. Tobacco products are the leading cause of preventable disease and death in Canada, killing 46,000 Canadians each year. There are 3.6 million Canadians who smoke, representing 11 per cent of the population 18 years of age and older. Everything possible must be done to reduce tobacco use so that, over time, these deadly numbers can become a thing of the past. We also urgently need resources and initiatives to respond to high rates of youth vaping that threaten to create a new generation addicted to nicotine. Otherwise, this cycle of deadly addiction will continue.

It is especially important for the provinces and territories to step up to this task now because, while the settlement does provide $1 billion to establish a foundation to reduce the impact of tobacco-related diseases, that foundation is unfortunately specifically prohibited from funding programs and initiatives to reduce and prevent tobacco use.

This is a generational opportunity to change the future, and it must be seized. We’ve known about the harms of smoking for more than 60 years and the lawsuit settlement in Canada has come to fruition only after a years-long legal process — 27 years after the landmark U.S. Master Settlement Agreement with the big tobacco companies.

This unprecedented funding opportunity that the provinces are about to receive will only happen once. We have a rare opportunity for long-term thinking and investment into prevention — a chance to take the steps needed to create a nicotine-free generation and save the lives of Canadians into the foreseeable future.

It’s vital that provincial and territorial governments use substantial funds from the settlement to prevent and reduce tobacco use, e-cigarette use and nicotine addiction.

What a wonderful legacy that would be, from us to future Canadians. 

Doug Roth is CEO of Heart & Stroke. Andrea Seale is CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society. Sarah Butson is CEO of Canadian Lung Association.