Minister of Justice and Health and Social Services Tracy-Anne McPhee has issued the following statement:
“On Thursday December 12, 2024, all provincial and territorial governments and the class action plaintiffs have voted to accept the Mediator’s and Monitors’ Plans of Compromise and Arrangement (the 'Plan') pursuant to the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.
“The Plan is worth over 32 billion dollars in total and will provide compensation to individual smokers, critical money for the health care system across Canada and a foundation for treatment research.
“The proposed plan supports recovering money from cigarette companies in compensation for alleged past wrongful practices by the tobacco companies from the 1950s through the 1980s. Those practices resulted in harm to Yukoners and Canadians and significant costs to our health care system.
“The proposed Plan does a lot of good and can bring to conclusion a frustratingly long legal process. We are sympathetic to the concerns expressed by others that the foundation established by the Plan does not specifically address smoking cessation. Smoking rates are much lower than they were even a generation ago, in part due to government measures designed to help smokers quit and non-smokers, particularly youth, not to start in the first place. High levels of taxation, education campaigns, bans on marketing and bylaws that prohibit smoking in public places have made a huge difference.
“However, we know that the job is not done and we commit to continuing to make anti-smoking policy a centrepiece of health policy.
“Now that the mediator has proposed a plan to the court and all creditors have accepted it, the next steps may depend on the positions taken by the tobacco companies. We encourage the tobacco companies to support the Plan as a fair way to bring this long running litigation to a conclusion but, in any event, we remain committed to fully enforcing our claims and recovering our health care costs in the courts.
“In the Yukon under the proposed plan, we would receive as much as $100 million with most of it paid in the first five years. These funds would be used to provide meaningful benefits for our hospitals and health care services and continue the work being done to reduce the number of Canadians who smoke.
“This would provide significant compensation to both health systems and individual litigants.”
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Ongoing government efforts in the Yukon and nationally to reduce the number of Canadians who smoke include: education campaigns about the dangers of smoking; raising the cost through taxation; placing limits on where smoking can occur; bans on advertising and marketing; and labelling the product as dangerous.
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According to the Government of Canada, approximately 12 per cent of Canadians smoke daily. That’s down from 50 per cent of Canadians who smoked daily in the past for the earlier years covered by this lawsuit addressing practices from the 1950s to 1980s.
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In 2022, 23.1 per cent of Yukoners ages 12 and up reported that they had tried an e-cigarette or vaping device. This is equivalent to approximately 8,611 people. This is higher than the 2022 national rate at 18.6 per cent.
Laura Seeley
Cabinet Communications
867-332-7627
[email protected]