Evaluation of the Health Portfolio Tobacco and Vaping Activities 2021-2022 to 2024-2025
Final Report - Executive Summary and Management Response and Action Plan
December 2025
Prepared by the Office of Audit and Evaluation
Public Health Agency of Canada
Note: The complete evaluation report is available upon request. Please send an email to oae-bae@phac-aspc.gc.ca.
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Executive summary
Background and evaluation scope
The Health Portfolio's Tobacco and Vaping Control Activities are guided by Canada’s Tobacco Strategy, launched in 2018 with the goal of reducing tobacco use in Canada to below 5% by 2035. With $66 million in annual funding, the Strategy focuses on helping people in Canada quit tobacco, protecting youth and non-users of tobacco products from nicotine addiction, working with Indigenous groups to create specific plans for Indigenous people, and strengthening related science, surveillance and partnerships.
In support of the Strategy, Health Canada undertakes many activities, including administering and enforcing the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA), as well as conducting policy and regulatory development, and public education efforts via several of its branches, while the Public Health Agency of Canada supports cessation initiatives for priority populations via the Healthy Canadians and Communities Fund. Other federal departments, including Indigenous Services Canada, public safety agencies, and the Canada Revenue Agency, contribute to working with Indigenous peoples, preventing illicit tobacco trade, and administering tobacco taxation, respectively.
The evaluation of the Health Portfolio’s Tobacco and Vaping Control Activities assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of initiatives implemented by Health Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada from 2021-2022 to 2024-2025, in support of the Strategy goal to reduce tobacco use prevalence to below 5% by 2035. Specifically, the evaluation assessed progress in helping people in Canada quit tobacco, protecting youth and non-users of tobacco products from nicotine addiction, the contributions of Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program, public advertising campaigns and education efforts, and Public Health Agency of Canada’s tobacco-focused projects, as well as how efficiently resources, roles, and responsibilities were managed, and whether efforts were targeted to areas of highest need.
Key findings
Progress toward national goals
Significant progress has been made towards achieving Canada’s Tobacco Strategy goal, with adult smoking rates decreasing from 22.0% in 2010 to 11.5% in 2023. Youth smoking rates, among 12 to 17-year-olds, also declined during this period from 6.2% in 2010 to 1.6% in 2023. Evidence shows that, despite reductions in smoking and vaping among First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, their rates of use remain higher than the national average, indicating a continued need for targeted efforts.
Youth and young adults vaping
Health Canada introduced regulations to help address the rise in youth vaping, including product labeling, nicotine concentration limits, and strict advertising controls. These efforts, combined with education campaigns targeting youth, contributed to reductions in vaping among adolescents aged 12 to 17, from 13.1% in 2019 to 7.1% in 2023. Conversely, vaping increased among young adults aged 18 to 24 from 13.3 % in 2020 to 19.4% in 2023, underscoring the necessity for ongoing preventive efforts.
Smoking cessation
Smoking cessation rates have remained stable over the past five years, with around 8% of adults successfully quitting each year. Despite the availability of cessation aids like nicotine replacement therapies, medications, and vaping products, most adults continue to try quitting without support, highlighting opportunities to strengthen outreach and promotion of existing services. Since 2011-2012, Health Canada has funded provinces and territories to operate the Pan-Canadian Quitline, which requires further assessment to ensure its effectiveness and return on investment.
Grants and contributions programs
The evaluation highlighted positive contributions from funded projects aimed at tobacco cessation and prevention of uptake, especially among priority populations. Programs like the Healthy Canadians and Communities Fund and the Substance Use and Addictions Program have demonstrated clear outcomes, including reduced smoking rates among participants. At the same time, a wide range of actors, including provincial and municipal governments, non-governmental organizations, and private sector entities like health insurance companies, have also sponsored initiatives to encourage smoking cessation, leading to a domain with several actors. While the activities and target populations vary, these actors share the common objective of reducing smoking across various groups. Greater clarity on different program roles and their future direction could help optimize resource allocation.
Public education campaigns
Health Canada's public education initiatives have effectively raised awareness and engaged Canadians through diverse media strategies. Campaigns targeting youth and adults who smoke have generated substantial online engagement. Yet, some stakeholders have identified a gap in communicating nuanced messaging, particularly on vaping as a harm reduction tool for adults who smoke. Future campaigns will continue to require balanced messaging to address the distinct informational needs of youth, non-users of tobacco products, and adults who smoke.
Compliance and enforcement
Compliance and enforcement efforts under current tobacco and vaping legislation face several challenges. These include challenges within the suite of compliance and enforcement tools, limited resources, and delays in implementing new information technology systems, all of which have affected oversight capacity. Health Canada has been working on the National Integrated Compliance and Enforcement Management Solution to modernize data capture and analysis, but implementation has been delayed. In the meantime, the Regulatory Operations and Enforcement Branch is relying on interim solutions, which constrain the development of real-time views of compliance trends. Although Health Canada increased inspections, particularly for vaping products, resource constraints may limit the scope and effectiveness of compliance and enforcement activities, especially in the expanding online marketplace. The absence of stronger compliance and enforcement tools under the TVPA may further limit Health Canada’s ability to address non-compliance effectively.
Data and Surveillance
Despite meeting Health Canada surveillance and reporting targets, the evaluation found evidence of inconsistency of survey tools and insufficient coverage of specific populations. Improved continuity, comparability, and integration of data collection tools are needed to support clear and actionable analyses of emerging trends and public health impacts.
Roles, responsibilities, and resource allocation
Roles and responsibilities across Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and other partners were generally well defined and support coordinated action under the Canada Tobacco Strategy.
Health Canada has demonstrated flexibility in reallocating resources to address emerging vaping concerns. However, the lack of adequate ongoing funding for compliance and enforcement activities under the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act, including for laboratory services, remains a challenge. Since 2018, numerous new regulations have been introduced, but without adequate ongoing funding and long-term planning, Health Canada’s capacity to respond effectively to regulatory demands may be limited. In 2025, Health Canada implemented the Tobacco Charges Regulations, which require tobacco product manufacturers, including importers, to pay an annual charge to recover the costs of the tobacco-related activities undertaken by the Government of Canada in relation to the carrying out of the purpose of the TVPA, thereby minimizing the cost burden on taxpayers of funding these activities. This change is also intended to enhance transparency and inform future resource planning under Canada’s Tobacco Strategy and enhance the government's ability to align resources with regulatory demands and public health priorities.
While the TVPA provides the authority to develop and implement tobacco and vaping cost recovery frameworks, Health Canada is pursuing a phased approach to the implementation of cost recovery frameworks for tobacco and vaping. Implementing a cost recovery framework for tobacco products is the Government’s initial priority and further analysis is required to develop an appropriate approach for recovering the federal government’s costs for vaping-related activities from vaping product manufacturers.
Recommendations
Aimed at the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada
Recommendation 1: Work jointly to further define the roles and priorities of Public Health Agency of Canada’s and Health Canada’s grants and contributions programs in the tobacco cessation space.
Public Health Agency of Canada’s and Health Canada’s grants and contributions programs both support tobacco cessation, but their respective roles and priorities have evolved over time. Further clarification, developed jointly, would help ensure program alignment, avoid overlap, and strengthen complementarity with the efforts of other Canada’s Tobacco Strategy partners.
Aimed at Health Canada
Recommendation 2: Enhance information technology systems and data analytics capacity to support program activities.
Current systems are outdated and delays in new ones, limit Health Canada’s ability to track compliance, manage enforcement effectively, and analyze emerging trends. This recommendation, carried forward from the previous evaluation, highlights the continued need for an updated plan to implement an appropriate IT solution so the program can better track compliance and make well-informed decisions.
Recommendation 3: To enhance continuity and clarity, focus tobacco and vaping prevalence data reporting to the Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth and the Canadian Community Health Survey.
While Health Canada continues to meet research and surveillance targets and collects sufficient data to monitor smoking and vaping rates, the use of multiple surveys for monitoring and reporting prevalence creates variations that limit continuity and comparability. Focusing data collection through existing Health Canada surveys, administered by Statistics Canada, would enhance clarity, improve consistency, and support clearer analysis of trends and progress.
Recommendation 4: Develop options and a recommendation to address challenges for inspections and lab analysis. Additionally, consider and incorporate evaluation findings on compliance and enforcement into the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act’s third legislative review process.
Compliance and enforcement activities under the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act face challenges, including within the suite of compliance and enforcement tools, resource constraints, and the growth of online sales, which creates pressure to modernize systems and strengthen capabilities. Incorporating evaluation findings into the third legislative review will help address these challenges, while strengthening laboratory capacity would support the long-term sustainability of compliance functions.
Management response and action plan
Recommendation 1: aimed at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)
Work jointly to further define the roles and priorities of PHAC’s and Health Canada’s grants and contributions programs in the tobacco cessation space.
Management response
Management agrees with the recommendation. PHAC’s role has evolved alongside other federal programs, requiring clarification to ensure it remains relevant and complements efforts by Health Canada and other partners.
| Action Plan | Deliverables | Expected Completion Date | Accountability | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 PHAC and HC officials will work together to clarify program roles and areas of focus to ensure strengths of each grants and contributions program is optimized | 1.1.1 Create or update appropriate program documents (e.g., Standard Operating Procedures, program charter) to ensure programs are complementary and reduce the risk of duplication when setting priorities to support the development of calls for proposals, review of proposals, and/or receipt of deliverables |
October 2026 | Office of Primary Interest (OPI): Executive Director, Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Equity Office of Secondary Interest (OSI): Director General, Horizontal Policy, Planning, and Program Directorate, Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch, Health Canada OSI: Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate, Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch, Health Canada |
Existing resources |
Recommendation 2: aimed at Health Canada
Enhance information technology systems and data analytics capacity to support program activities.
Management response
Management agrees with the recommendation. Current systems are outdated and delayed, limiting Health Canada’s ability to track compliance, manage enforcement effectively, and analyze emerging trends. This recommendation, carried forward from the previous evaluation, highlights the continued need for an updated plan to implement a system that can better track compliance and make well-informed decisions.
| Action Plan | Deliverables | Expected Completion Date | Accountability | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 Implementation of a suitable IT System. | 2.1.1 Solution is implemented and available to all users. | March 2027 | OPI: Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate, Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch, Health Canada OSI: Director General, Cannabis, Tobacco and Controlled Substances Directorate, Regulatory Operations and Enforcement Branch, Health Canada OSI: Director General, Digital Product Development, Delivery and Management Directorate. Digital Transformation Branch |
Existing resources |
Recommendation 3: aimed at Health Canada
To enhance continuity and clarity, focus tobacco and vaping prevalence data reporting to the Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth (CHSCY) and the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS).
Management response
Management agrees with the recommendation. While Health Canada continues to meet research and surveillance targets and collects sufficient data to monitor smoking and vaping rates, the use of multiple surveys for monitoring and reporting prevalence creates variations that limit continuity and comparability. Focusing data collection through existing Health Canada surveys administered by Statistics Canada would enhance clarity, improve consistency, and support clearer analysis of trends and progress.
| Action Plan | Deliverables | Expected Completion Date | Accountability | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 Develop a branch wide strategy for tobacco and vaping data collection and dissemination. | 3.1.1 Develop a Data Collection, Analysis and Dissemination Plan and obtain senior management (Assistant Deputy Minister) approval | October 31, 2026 | OPI: Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate, Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch, Health Canada OSI: Director General, Controlled Substances and Overdose Response Directorate OSI: Director General, Cannabis Strategic Policy Directorate |
Existing resources |
Recommendation 4: aimed at Health Canada
Develop options and a recommendation to address challenges for inspections and lab analysis. Additionally, consider and incorporate evaluation findings on compliance and enforcement into the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA) third legislative review process.
Management response
Management agrees with the recommendation. Consideration for ongoing program priorities, financial stability and sustainability is needed to effectively deliver Health Canada’s tobacco and vaping compliance and enforcement activities, including inspections and lab analysis. Taking into consideration the total program funding across the department, the Regulatory Operations and Enforcement Branch in collaboration with the Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch, will undertake a compliance and enforcement resource and capacity analysis based on current regulatory requirements, including those implemented since the coming into force of the TVPA. As the program continues to face challenges from limited compliance and enforcement tools, the Department will consider and incorporate evaluation findings into the third TVPA Legislative Review, which is focused on compliance and enforcement.
| Action Plan | Deliverables | Expected Completion Date | Accountability | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 Develop options and a recommendation to address the stability and capacity challenges for inspections and lab analysis that would allow for an effective delivery of Health Canada’s tobacco and vaping compliance and enforcement activities. | 4.1.1 Options and recommendation for addressing inspection and laboratory stability and structural capacity is developed and provided to senior management for consideration. | October 30, 2026 | OPI: Directors General, Cannabis, Tobacco and Controlled Substances Directorate and Laboratories Directorate, Regulatory Operations and Enforcement Branch, Health Canada OSI: Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate, Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch, Health Canada |
Existing Resources |
| 4.2 Consideration is given to the evaluation findings for incorporation into the TVPA third legislative review process.
|
4.2.1 Incorporate evaluation findings into the TVPA third legislative review process where appropriate. | May 23, 2026 | OPI: Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate, Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch, Health Canada OSI: Director General, Cannabis, Tobacco and Controlled Substances Directorate, Regulatory Operations and Enforcement Branch, Health Canada |
Existing resources |