No government should accept a settlement proposal that legitimizes and sustains the harmful tobacco industry.
Last month, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew did something no other provincial leader has done: he made public how the provincial lawsuits against tobacco companies will likely be settled.
On May 4, he announced that he expects Manitoba to get an initial payment of up to $500 million, and that future payments are expected.
The Saskatchewan government may similarly anticipate an initial payment of up to $500 million from tobacco companies and a commitment to future instalments.
Some might see this as good news; tobacco companies would finally pay for some health-care costs resulting from their wrongful behaviour.
However, there’s a dark side to a settlement with Big Tobacco that includes payments beyond the $12 billion the companies currently have available: it would need to rely on future sales of addictive and harmful products.
Any future compensation payments can only be generated by keeping alive these same companies whose products currently kill more than 1,500 Saskatchewan residents each year and have hooked generations of young people through vaping.
Using future sales revenues to fund ongoing compensation to the provinces and other creditors means that consumers — not companies — will finance a global settlement among the provinces and the companies. It means that the purchases, health and well-being of smokers, vapers and other nicotine users will underwrite compensation for past wrongdoing.
The vicious cycle of addiction, disease and health-care costs will continue. Meanwhile, corporate directors and others whose wrongful behaviours are detailed in the provinces’ legal claim will go unpunished.
No government should accept a settlement proposal that legitimizes and sustains the harmful tobacco industry behaviour that is at the root of these lawsuits. No government should seek compensation for past wrongdoing that results in a continuation of harm.
Instead of extending the viability of the tobacco business and prolonging the smoking and addiction epidemic, Premier Scott Moe and his nine premier colleagues should work together to impose an orderly wind-down of the commercial tobacco market. They should seize this historic opportunity to make the companies stop recruiting new customers and start phasing out this harmful business.
If these leaders prefer a monetary settlement to one focused on protecting health, they are out of step with public opinion.
A poll conducted for our organizations by Leger in the fall of 2023 found that 70 per cent of Canadian respondents (and 80 per cent of those with an opinion) supported their province “using these lawsuits to require tobacco manufacturers to phase out the commercial sale of cigarettes in Canada.” Only 17 per cent of respondents opposed this outcome.
Canadian governments are in the process of phasing out coal power and CO2 emissions despite their past economic reliance on carbon-based energy. Why sustain a tobacco industry whose products kill people and place an extraordinary burden on our health-care system?
Why protect tobacco companies? Instead, provincial governments should protect public health, youth and health care from multinational tobacco giants.
Secret settlement discussions are undemocratic. Decisions on whether this industry is allowed to escape bankruptcy and how it will be held accountable for decades of wrongdoing should not be made through a backroom deal.
These are important public policy issues that deserve transparency, open discussion and public engagement.
Now is the time for Moe and his legislative colleagues to consult with Saskatchewan residents about the future they want for the tobacco industry. A listening exercise would not contravene any court-ordered confidentiality on insolvency discussions. It would instead help the talks by informing those at the negotiating table about the priorities of people they represent.
Without such transparency and engagement, the upcoming settlement looks like a sugar-coated money grab that could have an enormous negative impact for generations to come.
The authors: Cynthia Callard, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada; Flory Doucas, Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control; Les Hagen, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH Canada)
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