Health Canada meeting with the Canadian Vaping Association – March 20, 2024

Subject(s):

Feedback on the proposed Order Amending Schedule 2 and 3 to the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (Flavours).

Date:

March 20, 2024

Participants:

Health Canada (HC)

• Sonia Johnson (Chair), Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate (TCD), Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch (CSCB)
• Manager, Vaping Regulations, Tobacco Products Regulatory Office (TPRO), TCD, CSCB
• Manager, Report Control Division, TPRO, TCD, CSCB
• Subject Matter and Technical Specialist, Office of Compliance of Tobacco and Vaping Products, TCD, CSCB
• Policy Analyst, International and Regulatory Policy Unit, Office of Policy and Strategic Planning (OPSP), TCD, CSCB
• Policy Analyst, International and Regulatory Policy Unit, OPSP, TCD, CSCB (Secretariat)

Canadian Vaping Association (CVA)

• Sam Tam, President
• Daniel David, Director/Subject Matter Expert
• Taryn LaVacca, Communications Manager
• Darryl Tempest, Government Relations Counsel

Introduction:

A meeting was held at the request of CVA to further discuss their feedback on the proposed Order Amending Schedule 2 and 3 to the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (Flavours), published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, in June 2021, following the engagement session held on March 12, 2024, with the CVA and Vaping Industry Trade Association.

The Chair opened the meeting with round table introductions.

HC reminded participants that this meeting is subject to disclosure as per HC's Openness and Transparency policies. In the interest of transparency, the Department stated that it would be making a record of the meeting publicly available. The handling of information and privacy notice was mentioned and acknowledged.

HC also referred to Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), its international obligation to protect tobacco control policies from the vested interests of the tobacco industry. It was acknowledged by CVA representatives.

Subjects:

The CVA presented their concerns related to the proposed Order and regulations, providing more details following the webinar that was held on March 12, 2024. These concerns include impact of the illicit market and impact of the proposal on small businesses. The CVA also wanted to present their outreach updates. The CVA does not support restrictions on flavours and believes the available data does not support such restrictions.

Illicit market

The CVA conducted an environmental scan which found that illicit products are very prevalent in Canadian retailers and are also being imported into Canada. Their scan also found that:

• Retailers selling non-compliant products are often non-compliant in other respects as well;
• The illicit market has targeted youth by selling products via Snapchat and social media; and
• Illicit vape shops are opening on reserves and illicit products in these shops are more difficult to track and intercept than imported products.

Additionally, the CVA presented provincial and territorial data from their environmental scan. Their scan has found that the majority of retailers are carrying non-compliant or illicit products. They believe this is particularly an issue in British Columbia.

The sale of illicit products has hindered the sale of licit products and created challenges for retailers selling compliant products. The CVA feels they could address the issues with the illicit market with support from governments.

The CVA's anticipated impacts of the proposal

The CVA anticipates that the proposal, if implemented, would have a significant impact on businesses and on revenue. In particular:

• The CVA reports that 90% of the sale of vaping products are flavours other than tobacco, mint and menthol. The organization anticipates that restrictions on flavours would cause people who vape to get their flavours elsewhere or return to smoking, with very few migrating to tobacco, mint or menthol.
• The CVA stated that the restriction of flavours in Quebec caused 450 of 700 retailers to close, and anticipates we would see a similar trend nationally should the proposal move forward.
• The organization believes these factors would have significant impacts on the excise tax program. The CVA projects that the impact would be approximately $296M annually.
• Finally, the CVA feels that the proposal, if implemented, would also impact their own organization's viability.

Outreach by the CVA

The CVA has had meetings with the Department of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency regarding the proposal and raised their concerns related to excise tax revenue.

Additionally, the organization is reaching out to provinces and territories to further discuss possible impacts of the proposal.

Lastly, the CVA mentioned concerns relating to relative risk and harm reduction. The organization mentioned that the public perceives vaping as more dangerous than smoking. Additionally, the CVA believes that Health Canada should advance efforts to correct this information in order to educate consumers about harm reduction associated with vaping products.

In closing, Health Canada asked the CVA to provide the sources for the data presented as well as their report/environmental scan.

Conclusion:

The meeting was then concluded.

Documents:

• Agenda as provided by CVA