Health Canada and Small Guys Cigar Group Meeting – November 16, 2022

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Subject:

Health Canada invited the Small Guys Cigar Group (SGCG) to a meeting to continue to discuss the technical challenges the SGCG claims to face in complying with the proposed Regulations Amending the Tobacco Products Regulations (Plain and Standardized Packaging), as a follow-up to a previous meeting held on August 24, 2022.

Date:

November 16, 2022

Participants:

Health Canada (HC)

• Denis Choinière, (Chair)
  • Director, Tobacco Products Regulatory Office (TPRO), Tobacco Control Directorate (TCD), Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch (CSCB)
• Stephen Moir
  • Acting Assistant Director, Office of Compliance of Tobacco and Vaping Products (OCTVP), TCD, CSCB
• Acting Manager, Tobacco Labelling, TRPO, TCD, CSCB
• Acting Manager, Systems Configuration Unit, OCTVP, TCD, CSCB
• Senior Policy Analyst, Tobacco Labelling, TPRO, TCD, CSCB
• Senior Policy Analyst, Tobacco Labelling, TPRO, TCD, CSCB
• Senior Program Officer, Tobacco Labelling, TPRO, TCD, CSCB
• Policy Analyst, Tobacco Labelling, TPRO, TCD, CSCB
• Policy Analyst, Tobacco Labelling, TPRO, TCD, CSCB
• Senior Program Officer, OCTVP, TCD, CSCB
• Policy Analyst, OCTVP, TCD, CSCB
• Policy Analyst, International and Regulatory Policy Unit, Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, TCD, CSCB (Secretariat)

Small Guys Cigar Group (SGCG):

• Cathy O'shea
  • President, House of Horvath Inc.
• Colm O'shea
  • Executive Vice President, House of Horvath Inc.
• Kyle Wilcox
  • General Manager, Brigham Enterprises
• Roger Lanteigne
  • Commercial Manager, Havana House

Introduction:

A meeting was held at the request of Health Canada to continue to discuss technical challenges faced by the SGCG in complying with the proposed Regulations Amending the Tobacco Products Regulations (Plain and Standardized Packaging), published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on June 11, 2022, as a follow-up to a previous meeting held on August 24, 2022.

The Chair opened the meeting with round table introductions.

The Chair 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, its international obligation to protect tobacco control policies from the vested interests of the tobacco industry. It was acknowledged by SGCG representatives.

Subjects:

The SGCG showed samples of cigar packages, at Health Canada's invitation, and described the specific challenges they would face with the proposed packaging requirements.

The SGCG explained that they are unable to comply with the proposed requirements because they feel that the number and types of packages that their companies have, were not considered in the proposal. They added that the proposed requirements would be difficult to apply to some package types (e.g. tins, pouches and bundles), due to a lack of space. Additionally, the SGCG would face challenges complying with the proposed requirements while also respecting existing specifications related to font size for brand, manufacturer and importer information.

The SGCG added that the rotation schedule (health messages) would prove difficult to comply with given the transit time of the products from their production location into Canada and then on store shelves.

Conclusion:

The meeting was then concluded.

Documents:

• Agenda as provided by SGCG