World No Tobacco Day – Announcement of Funding for Tobacco Cessation Project

Today, to mark World No Tobacco Day, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, announced $3 million in funding for a national social marketing campaign to encourage people who smoke to quit.

May 2021

World No Tobacco Day is an annual event organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) that informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, what WHO member countries are doing to fight the tobacco epidemic, and what people around the world can do to claim their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations. This year’s theme is “Commit to Quit”.

During World No Tobacco Day 2021, Health Canada announced funding for a new tobacco cessation project funded through the Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP).

The Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Lung Association, the Canadian Public Health Association, and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada are receiving more than $3 million over 26 months to reach and encourage quit attempts among the 2.6 million Canadians aged 35-64 who continue to smoke through a national social marketing campaign. This project seeks to enhance awareness, knowledge, education, through a national social marketing campaign to reach people who use tobacco to encourage them to quit. This initiative is part of the long-term goal of driving down tobacco use in pursuit of Canada’s goal of a less than 5% tobacco prevalence rate by 2035.

Through SUAP, Health Canada provides funding to key stakeholders, including provinces, territories, and non-governmental and Indigenous organizations to strengthen the response to substance use issues in Canada. These partnerships are essential to the Government’s public education efforts to help communicate, complement and extend the reach of its health and safety messages about tobacco use so that Canadians can make informed decisions.

SUAP funding supports evidence-based and innovative initiatives across a range of interventions—health promotion, prevention, harm reduction and treatment—targeting a broad range of legal and illegal substances.

For a list of active SUAP projects, please visit our website.