New Democratic health critic Judy Darcy is taking another crack at getting flavoured tobacco products banned in B.C.
The New Westminster MLA has re-introduced a private member’s bill that would amend the Tobacco Control Act to ban the sale of tobacco products flavoured like fruit, chocolate and other flavours that she says make them attractive to children and teenagers.
“Tobacco companies know that when people start smoking young, they are more likely to get addicted and therefore are more likely to be life-long smokers,” Darcy stated in a press release Tuesday. “Stopping the sale of these flavoured tobacco products is one step toward reducing the prevalence of tobacco-related cancers in British Columbia.”
Darcy first introduced the bill last April, arguing tobacco companies needed to be stopped because their marketing strategy targeting youth was working.
She cited a 2012/13 University of Waterloo national youth smoking survey that found 53 per cent of youth tobacco users (over 30,000 students) in B.C. had used flavoured tobacco products.
Tobacco is still the leading cause of death and disease in B.C., according to the Canadian Cancer Society, killing over 6,000 British Columbians every year, and the majority of new tobacco users are under 18.
It also costs the B.C. economy $2.3 billion a year, according to the society.
Health Minister Terry Lake said a year ago the province was working with the federal government to enhance national restrictions on flavoured tobacco, arguing provincial legislation would create a “patchwork of standards across the country.”
But Lake said the province would act if the federal government didn’t move forward.
He reiterated that position in an emailed statement Tuesday.
“The Premier has given my ministry a mandate to work with the federal government to regulate the sales of e-cigarettes and flavoured tobacco to minors in British Columbia or in the absence of a federal strategy, move to introduce legislation,” Lake wrote.
The minister was not available to say how long the province was willing to wait for a federal strategy, but said regulation changes currently proposed by the federal government would meet the provincial health ministry’s goals on flavoured tobacco and e-cigarettes.
The Canadian Cancer Society, however, doesn’t think the new federal regulations go far enough.
They would ban most flavours of tobacco in most cigars between a certain weight, but the society would like to see a ban on flavours in all categories of tobacco products.
Such legislation has already been brought forward in Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia, and Darcy’s bill would put B.C. in that mix.
“If the health minister is not willing to introduce legislation of his own, here’s a bill that his government can support,” Darcy said. “It’s the right thing to do.”
