Lung Saskatchewan wants $700 million tobacco settlement used properly

The province is getting a big chunk of change through an Ontario tobacco settlement.

Saskatchewan will receive around $700 million,after the ruling, which brings a resolution to efforts to recover funds for the provincial healthcare system from tobacco companies that have sold cigarettes in Canada.

Tobacco companies will be required to pay out a total of $32.5 billion in the compensation plan, which constitutes the largest resolution of its kind in Canadian history, and the third largest ever anywhere in the world.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Health said: “The government will be investing this money in treatments for individuals suffering from smoking-related illnesses and toward hospitals and ERs.”

Erin Kuan, CEO of Lung Saskatchewan, said she wants to see the money used properly.

“We just want to make sure that this money doesn’t flow into provincial governments and get absorbed into the treasury and go to fix highways and potholes,” she said.

“While those things are certainly important, we want to see this money directed back into where it has really been drained from in the past.”

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Kuan calls the $700 million Saskatchewan is to receive a “drop in the bucket.”

“When you consider the years and years that tobacco was taking money out of provinces, out of the health-care system because of things like lung cancer, throat cancer, emphysema and COPD and causing fire-related damage, smoking-related damage to homes and businesses, it really is a drop in the bucket compared to what could have been,” she said.

Now that the settlement has been announced, Lung Saskatchewan is asking to be at the table to provide recommendations to the province on improving tobacco-related health efforts.

But Kuan doesn’t know when that will happen.

“It still is early days, and there are a lot of moving parts to this settlement,” she said.

“While it sounds like a lot of money, if you are looking at the development of a tobacco and vaping reduction strategy that’s something that won’t be one and done … that would require funding over multiple years.”

Lung Saskatchewan is requesting meetings with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance to be part of discussions.

According to Kuan, the organization will not be receiving any money from the settlement, nor has it requested any funding.

She said commercial tobacco costs the Saskatchewan economy roughly $365 million every year from lost productivity, health-care costs and smoking-related fire damage.

The settlement was first proposed in October after years of mediation between the companies — JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. — and their creditors, which include plaintiffs in two Quebec class-action lawsuits as well as provincial and territorial governments seeking to recoup smoking-related health-care costs.

The compensation plan will:

• Put significant amounts of money into provincial and territorial health care systems for improved treatment and care.
• Provide meaningful compensation from tobacco companies to individual victims of smoking.
• Provide clear accountability to the cigarette manufacturers for past conduct and wrongful practices.

The provincial government said it remains committed to supporting prevention, cessation, and enforcement of tobacco, nicotine and vapour products, particularly regarding youth.

— with files from 650 CKOM’s Brent Bosker and The Canadian Press

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