Canada is set to enforce a ban on vape flavours imminently, the federal government has said.
It comes more than three years after the regulations were first proposed.
The minister of mental health and addictions Ya'ara Saks told CBC News: "We have made a commitment from the start to restrict flavours. We haven't wavered from that. We will have this in place soon. I don't anticipate this is going to take much longer."
However, she did not specify a timeline. The pledge came after a coalition of anti-smoking health groups held a press conference in Canadian capital Ottawa earlier this month calling on Saks to bring in the ban now or resign.
Ban first proposed in 2021
Government department Health Canada first vowed to restrict vape flavours to mint, menthol and tobacco back in June 2021, in a move it said was designed to curb a “rapid increase in youth vaping in Canada.”
"The availability of a variety of desirable flavours is believed to have contributed to the rise in youth vaping," Health Canada said at the time, pointing to research that shows young people are more likely to start vaping with fruit and sweet flavours.
While the government has been consulting on a national flavour ban for over three years, six provinces and territories have brought in their own flavour bans. These are New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Quebec.
Concerns a flavour ban will fuel blackmarket trade
Saks said the delay in national regulations is due to concerns that a flavour ban will simply fuel blackmarket trade.
"We've … seen in jurisdictions like Quebec, where banning of flavours has led to an illicit market that is accessible," she said. "So as we move forward with this, we want to make sure that we get it right."
In Australia, where vapes are available only through a limited number of pharmacies (around one in 100 sell them), blackmarket trade has ballooned and tobacco shops have been set on fire by rival criminal gangs fighting over control of the market.
In Brazil, sales of vapes reportedly quadrupled between 2018 and 2022 despite a national ban on them.
Saks said she wants to ensure regulations in Canada are enforceable and won’t simply encourage underground flavoured vape sales. "Just to be clear, there is no slow-walking of this," Saks said. "It's a matter of what are the lessons that we can learn right now?"
Smokers find flavoured vapes easier to switch to
Meanwhile, the vaping industry held its own press conference in Ottawa last week to call on Saks not to ban flavours.
Sam Tam, president of the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA), pointed out that adult smokers rely on vaping as a less harmful option to cigarettes and flavours make switching easier for them.
"A blanket flavour ban will do absolutely nothing to protect Canadians, especially our youth," he said.
The CVA warned earlier this month that a ban on flavoured vapes in Canada would have “devastating public health consequences.” It said in a statement that the proposed legislation undermines the country’s goal of becoming ‘smoke-free’ (defined as a smoking rate of under five per cent) by 2035.
