Ottawa Could Be Soon Raising At 21 The Minimum Age To Buy Tobacco

Convenience stores employees accustomed to putting the bar at 18 for selling tobacco, alcohol and other products for adults may soon be forced to modify their practices … on the rise.

As a matter of fact, the Federal government is seriously thinking of raising the minimum age for tobacco to 21 years of age, as proposed in a recently published discussion paper entitled Seizing the Opportunity : the future of tobacco control in Canada, unveiled on February 22, 2017 by Health Canada.

Canadians are invited to comment on this idea as part of a broad online consultation to redefine Canada’s tobacco control strategy for the next decade.

After recalling the devastation of tobacco use on health and the government’s determination to curb it, Ottawa is setting new ambitious (but far-off) goal of reducing tobacco consumption to only 5% by 2035 (whereas it is deemed at 13% today). In addition, Ottawa points out that various provincial governments have already adopted such targets, including a level of only 10% for Quebec in 2025, meaning that if achieved within the next eight years, the current number of smokers would be reduced by half (see table attached):

What would such a decrease means in terms of sales? It is totally legitimate for retailers to ask themselves this important question.

By 2015, based on the following table and various ratios, convenience stores sold an average of 66 cartons of tobacco per week. That number would drop to 33 in eight years, should Quebec achieve its objectives.

It is far from evident, however, that governments will succeed in attaining their objectives since the choice of smoking for adults is based on their free will.

On the other hand, tobacco retailers must be aware of the government’s determination to reduce demand, especially among young people.

Without resorting to pure prohibition, they have shown a definite inclination towards what could be dubbed “disguised prohibition”, whether it be excessive taxes, flavor bans or all-out regulation, the list of which would be too long to enumerate.

It should also be recalled that, with or without the help of governments, demand for tobacco has been declining steadily for 50 years, although for the past 10 years the volume of legal tobacco sold in Quebec has remained fairly stable, especially after governments decided to tackle more vigorously the wave of contraband tobacco that peaked in 2008.

To achieve its objectives, the federal government proposes four options:

Retailers will be happy to hear that Health Canada places the fight against contraband tobacco among its top priorities, a long-standing demand by the industry.

The irony here is that the government also reiterates its populist promise to adopt neutral and standardized packaging for all packs of cigarettes, which will in fact be helping criminals to better confuse customers with their own versions of neutral packs, whether there is a stamp or not placed on the package.

As for the minimum age at 21, one can wonder how retailers would manage the various age thresholds: 18 years for alcohol, fireworks, adult magazines, but 21 for tobacco?

18 years to vote, but 21 to smoke?

Then, what would it mean to be an adult in Canada?

This Federal consultation is part of a broader consultation process on the future of tobacco control in Canada. Some consultation sessions took place in the summer and fall of 2016. A National Forum with stakeholders also took place from February 28 to March 2, 2017.

Interested parties, groups, companies, individuals and others must send their notice and memorandum to the following email address.

Do not hesitate to participate and make your point and voice your concerns!