Tobacco taxes save lives

Re: Hooked on tobacco tax revenues, Geoff Russ, Jan. 22

Geoff Russ chose National Non-smoking Week as a puzzling platform to launch an attack on a cornerstone of Canada’s highly successful tobacco-reduction strategy. This is the same strategy that has resulted in cutting smoking rates by half in the past 20 years and has become a model of success for public health in Canada. Yes, this is the same strategy that has spared thousands of Canadians of a slow and suffocating death that would have been sacrificed for making tobacco companies rich and relentless.

The tobacco control cornerstone that Russ chose for his attack was tobacco taxation.

Tobacco taxes are the single most effective strategy to reduce and prevent tobacco use — especially among youth.

As any economics 101 class will reveal, when the prices of goods go up, consumption goes down.

Tobacco industry price increases have outpaced federal and provincial tax increases over the past nine years. Tobacco companies have relieved their customers’ wallets of an extra $23 per carton in price increases since 2013 — representing billions in additional industry revenue.

Russ also decided to attack taxes that are essential to help reverse the youth vaping epidemic. With 400,000 underage vapers across Canada, these taxes on vaping products cannot come soon enough.

Smoking rates among adults and youth are at an all-time low due to Canada’s successful efforts to reduce tobacco use. Taxation is an essential element of this success despite the predictable outcry from tobacco and vaping companies and their sympathizers.

If Russ wants to reduce the cost of tobacco products, perhaps he should be attacking tobacco industry price increases instead of governments that are trying to reduce tobacco use and to recoup the enormous healthcare costs of smoking on taxpayers. Les Hagen, Executive Director, Action on Smoking & Health, Edmonton