This settlement does nothing to address current and future harms or costs resulting from the tobacco industry In fact, the agreement contains no tobacco control measures or industry restructuring requirements

Opportunity and Need

It is crucial for provincial coalitions and their partners to convince governments to invest some settlement funds to finance and expand tobacco control efforts in their jurisdictions. This investment would help mitigate the enormous harm caused by the tobacco industry and address the blatant exclusions from the settlement agreement.

This effort is even more urgent given that provincial funding and capacity for tobacco control have declined substantially in the last 10-15 years. The settlement funds provide an opportunity to restore and enhance funding, capacity and effective interventions. This would help provinces meet or exceed the national target of reducing tobacco use prevalence to less than 5% by 2035 and redress the youth vaping epidemic. 

Provincial tobacco control coalitions and their partners need to mobilize quickly to ensure that a portion of the settlement funds are invested in tobacco control and that funds be set aside to compensate people who have been injured as a direct result of smoking cigarettes over many years. 

Suggested Actions: 

Write to your provincial Health Minister, Finance Minister and/or Premier urging their governments to invest a portion of the proceeds in tobacco control and COPD patient compensation. Be sure to request a meeting in your letter.
• Write a persuasive guest column (op-ed) for your major daily newspapers and online news sources 
• Request meetings with your government’s tobacco control or public health officials and ask them to support your efforts to increase/restore tobacco control funding. They can play a significant role in securing political support.
• Request meetings with supportive MLAs/MPPs/MNAs who can champion your cause internally—especially those involved with healthcare decisions.
• Stage a news conference in your provincial capital. World No-Tobacco Day is May 31, but any suitable day will work. Pick a date when your legislative assembly is in session and invite the press gallery to attend.

Key messages
• Well-invested tobacco control funding will help to mitigate current and future harms as well as costs resulting from tobacco use. The settlement agreement only addresses a portion of past damages and does not allow for meaningful compensation for victims of tobacco smoke.
• The settlement agreement allows tobacco companies to continue operating in a “business as usual” manner. Governments now have an additional responsibility to hold the industry accountable for its actions.
• The entire premise of the tobacco lawsuits was to hold the industry to account, to curtail its harmful behaviour and to compensate victims of cigarette smoking. Tobacco control funding has declined significantly in most provinces over the past years, however, tobacco use remains the leading cause of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), lung and throat cancer, and premature death in Canada. 
• Tobacco control is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health measures available. Provincial and territorial governments can use their settlement funds to make a generational investment in tobacco control that can reap tremendous rewards, including future savings in healthcare costs and the avoidance of tobacco related disease.

Follow-up
• Keep your national association (exec.copdcanada@gmail.com) or provincial coalitions apprised of any tobacco settlement related developments. Some general funding decisions have already been made in several provinces (e.g., cancer treatment and prevention). 

Information about the Pan-Canadian Claimants’ (PCC) Compensation Plan

THE COURT HAS APPROVED THE PCC PLANS.

The claims process will not begin right away, as some procedural, noticing, and implementation activities must first take place.Those who have registered for updates will receive updates by email. To register and sign up for email updates, please click here.

Are you a smoker or former smoker in Canada, or do you represent someone who smoked? If yes, the PCC Compensation Plan applies to anyone who:

• lives in any Province or Territory within Canada,
• was alive on March 8, 2019,
• smoked Twelve Pack-Years of cigarettes (i.e. at least 87,600 cigarettes) sold by the Canadian Tobacco Companies between January 1, 1950 and November 20, 1998,
• And was diagnosed in Canada with either Lung Cancer, Throat Cancer or Emphysema/COPD (GOLD Grades III or IV), between March 8, 2015 and March 8, 2019 (inclusive of those dates).

Individuals who meet all these criteria (“PCC Eligibility Criteria”) may be eligible to receive money from the PCC Compensation Plan. Official information regarding compensation of victims under the settlement can be found at these two websites:

https://www.tobaccoclaimscanada.ca/en
https://www.recourstabac.com/en/plan/