A health coalition has given the Alberta government a “C-” in a new report card for its effort to reduce tobacco use.
The province received top marks for banning flavoured tobacco and pursuing legal action against Big Tobacco, but underperformed on issues like tobacco affordability, restricting youth access and providing uniform protection from second-hand smoke, the coalition said.
READ MORE: Alberta government adds menthol to flavoured tobacco ban
“The Notley government started off very strong on tobacco reduction with the implementation of a comprehensive flavourings ban and a tobacco tax increase in 2015” the Canadian Cancer Society’s Angeline Webb said.
“However policy progress has virtually stalled since these actions were taken and Alberta is lagging behind other provinces in a number of key areas.”
Webb said the government must fully implement the Alberta Tobacco Reduction Strategy to prevent more kids from using tobacco.
The report card gave the Alberta government an “F” for its effort to protect youth from “the depiction of smoking youth-related movies.”
It received a “D” for its effort to implement and enforce approved legislation to stop tobacco sales to minors.
“We will be releasing this report card annually and we believe that Alberta can make significant progress in a number of key areas in 2017,” Action on Smoking & Health’s Les Hagen said.
“Alberta still has the most affordable cigarettes in Canada and the province is due for another major tobacco tax increase.
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Hagen said the NDP government should reinvest some of the proceeds from a tax increase back into reducing tobacco use. The government received a “D” in the report card for reinvesting tobacco taxes towards tobacco reduction and for financing and implementing the Alberta Tobacco Reduction Strategy.
“The Alberta Tobacco Reduction Strategy remains woefully underfunded and largely unimplemented even though the provincial government collects over $1 billion in tobacco taxes each year,” Hagen said.
“Not a single dime of tobacco tax revenue is dedicated to tobacco reduction. This contradiction cannot be justified any longer.”
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The health coalition acknowledged that the number of Albertans smoking has declined since 2010, but the group maintains the trends won’t continue unless tobacco taxes increase, there are enhanced and enforced restrictions on tabacco and additional funding to fully implement the Alberta Tobacco Reduction Strategy.
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