News & Blog

Over 20 key health organizations and tobacco control experts from across the country convened in Ottawa this weekend for a national roundtable on the future of tobacco control in Canada. Concerned with high rates of youth vaping and the increasing use of nicotine pouches, the roundtable participants released a consensus statement calling for a new national target of reducing nicotine use to less than 5% by 2045. The existing target of less than 5% tobacco use by 2035 was reaffirmed.

Canada’s healthcare crisis is usually described in familiar terms: long wait times, overcrowded emergency rooms, and not enough doctors and nurses. Governments respond with equally familiar promises: more hospital beds, more staff, more funding. Of course, these investments are necessary. But they are no longer sufficient.

Each January, millions of Canadians set New Year’s resolutions to improve their physical and mental health. For many, that means trying once again to quit smoking or vaping. The intentions are good, but the struggle to quit an addictive substance is real. Tobacco addiction remains one of the leading causes of preventable disease and death in Canada, and for too long we have treated this as an individual challenge rather than a national policy issue.