Vaping could cost more this summer due to a tax increase proposed by the federal government in this year’s budget.
On July 1, the price of a vaping pod will increase by between 12 and 24 cents depending on where Canadians live; It is expected to bring $310 million to the government over the next five years.
Ottawa says the price increase will reduce high rates of vaping among younger Canadians, but public health experts say the tax misses the mark and could have unintended consequences.
Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society, says while he believes this tax will help reduce the number of Canadians who vape, it’s an easy win.
“An increase of 12 percent, which is very close to the inflation of recent years. So it’s not really a big increase,” Cunningham said. “We could go much higher.”
Cunningham says the government is playing catch-up.
“It’s really frustrating, after having spent such difficult years working step by step to reduce smoking, to have to learn those lessons and repeat them over and over again,” she said.
While he supports any measures to reduce smoking and vaping by Canadians, Dr. Shawn Aaron, an Ottawa-based pirilogist, says he also believes the government is dropping the ball.
“The federal government could act even stronger,” he said. “Now the cat is probably out of danger. It will be difficult to undo this easy access to vaping products, but the government really needs to do something to make this a less easy activity for young people.”
One in 15 Canadians ages 15 to 19 will vape every day in 2022, according to Statistics Canada. Young adults vaped more than teenagers: one in 10 Canadians aged 20 to 24 vaped every day that same year.
While some experts wish the tax were higher, others worry if it could push some Canadians to smoke.
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Rahi Abouk, a professor at William Paterson University in Maine, New Jersey, co-authored a study on taxes on electronic cigarettes in the United States. Research found that every $1 increase in taxes on e-cigarettes results in about a 12 percent decrease in e-cigarette use, but there’s a problem.
“We noticed that conventional cigarette use increases after states adopt e-cigarette taxes,” Abouk said.
In an effort to combat that unintended consequence, the federal government also announced a tobacco tax increase in the 2024 budget that took effect in April, increasing the total tax by an additional $5.49 per box of 200 cigarettes. But Abigail Friedman, an associate professor of public health at Yale University and co-author of that study with Abouk, worries that the cigarette tax won’t be enough.
“The rise of e-cigarettes is substantial,” Friedman said. “But the simultaneous increase in cigarettes is very small.”
The federal tax increase on a pack of 20 cigarettes is equivalent to $3.72, while the Totals equivalent to the vaping tax. Between $1.12 and $2.24, making cigarettes in smaller quantities the most expensive option. Only when purchasing in bulk (a carton of 200 cigarettes and the equivalent number of vaping pods) does the vaping tax become more expensive by about five dollars.
But differences in retail prices may prevent the balance from tipping in favor of tobacco. An average pack of cigarettes ranges from $14 to $19, while vaporizers can be purchased for as little as $5 in Canada.
Cunningham said he is not concerned about Canadians smoking cigarettes because Canada has higher tobacco tax rates than the United States.
“We’re far from…those two product categories being equal in terms of retail price,” he said. “We need to increase taxes on electronic cigarettes. We need to increase tobacco taxes. We can do both.”
That’s not enough to calm the fears of Maria Papaioannoy, a member of the group Rights4Vapers, who consulted with Health Canada about banning vaping liquid flavors.
“If this tax is passed and the flavor ban is passed, four billion cigarettes will be manufactured and marketed in the first year of the flavor ban,” Papaioannoy said.
That four billion figure extrapolates the findings of Friedman and Abouk’s research, which found that for every 0.7 milliliter vaping pod not sold due to a flavor restriction policy in the United States, an additional 12 cigarettes were sold. .
He Vaping Industry Trade Association Estimates That, based on Canadian vaping sales, would equate to four billion additional cigarettes a year if both the flavor ban and the tax are implemented.
But Marion Burt of Toronto, a member of Rights4Vapers, says she won’t quit even if the government eliminates flavors and makes them more expensive.
“I won’t stop vaping because I value my health, even if the government doesn’t,” Burt said. “I’ll find a black market or make my own vape juice, which won’t be regulated… in my kitchen sink.”
Burt used to smoke cigarettes, but she said the flavors in vapes helped her quit. She ordered apple and tobacco flavored vaping products online about 10 years ago and hasn’t looked back since.
“When it arrived, I opened the apple first and knew from the first puff that I would never smoke again,” he said. “I tried tobacco about a week later and you know what? I threw it away. It was so horrible. “So I went to Rice Krispie Treats and berry spread and all kinds of flavors… I love the variety.”
He Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey found that Canadians aged 15 to 24 reported vaping a fruit flavor most frequently and nearly half of all adults aged 25 and older also reported using a fruit flavor most frequently.
In June 2021, the federal government said it would propose regulations to ban the addition of flavors to e-cigarettes except mint and menthol. However, in 2024, there is still no federal ban on flavors.
While vaping is marketed as being less harmful than cigarettes, Aaron says it comes with serious health problems.
“Vaping is associated with some terrible diseases,” Aaron said. “And people who start vaping run the risk of continuing to vape nicotine, but they also run the risk of starting to smoke cigarettes.”
Because it can take several decades before symptoms of long-term complications are seen, Aaron says it is not known whether vaping is safer than smoking. He hopes the government will act before it is too late to change course.
“As we discover the chronic and long-term health effects of vaping, it will be urgent for the federal government to intervene even more.”
