Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew appeared to signal early in May that the provinces were moving toward a financial settlement with tobacco companies — but that would miss a historic opportunity to wind up the cigarette industry, anti-tobacco activists warn.
The Canadian tobacco companies have about $12 billion set aside to fund a possible settlement. Assuming that that was divided up in shares by population, Manitoba's would be $433 million, and Ontario's would be $4.68 billion. "Fifteen years down the road, a lot of smokers will have quit, and a lot of them will have died. What this is focused on is making sure that they're not replaced because there's no incentive to replace them, and there's a reduced capacity to replace them."Tobacco companies perforate the filter so that air comes in more easily so that it's easier to inhale," Callard explains. "They adjust the pH so that it's more pleasant, less unpleasant to inhale.
In the mid-1990s, a hike in tobacco taxes appeared to lead smokers to buying more cigarettes from the illicit market, often involving smuggling from the U.S. Some have argued that with higher prices, smokers just shift to the black market, depriving the government of tax revenue while not reducing smoking rates. Others say that while increased taxes do drive some smokers to the black market, overall it reduces smoking in general.