Activists fear tobacco program reductions

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With rumors abounding that Canada's Tobacco Demand Reduction Strategy funding will be cut off this spring, social organizations have banded together to head the budget off at the pass. The strategy was introduced in 1992, and was scheduled for sunsetting and review in 1997, but insiders expect it to be axed in the next federal budget, effective March 31.

The National Coalition in Support of Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Prevention organized a card-and-letter-writing campaign to Prime Minister Jean Chretien in support of continuing funding. Last week, the campaign had already exceeded its goal of 50,000 cards, and coalition coordinator Maggie Hodgson estimated that it would reach 90,000 by the end of January, the scheduled end of the protest.

"We want to influence the decision before it becomes a fait accompli," she explained. "We haven't received the information in writing, but I had an informal meeting with the director general of the strategy, and he suggested that it would be sunsetted in the next budget, effective March 31."

"The government is still committed to the program," said Bonnie Fox-McIntyre, a media spokesperson with Health Canada. "We have heard rumors, but (Finance minister) Paul Martin has got to bring down the budget and that may or may not bring changes."

In addition to the tobacco strategy, Canada's Drug Strategy is supposed to sunset next year. In both cases, unless a review by Health Canada indicates that the programs should continue, it's curtains at the sunset date. If the department's review indicates that the program still has a purpose, the recommendation to continue would be passed on to cabinet, at which time a decision would be made.

"We're not against the ending of these programs, per se," said Hodgson. "We are opposed to the reduction of program funding in these areas. Our position is that we know (the government) is moving out of the single-focus 'stove-pipe programs' to population-focus health formula. If the two strategies are cut, we hope the funding goes into the new strategy and continues to service the same core areas."

"The present government has a Red Book strategy commitment: one, to look at tobacco use policy and, two, to look at drug use and abuse in Canada," Fox-McIntyre said. "Based on what we know, there is no change planned, and our department is continuing to follow exactly the same tobacco strategy."

But Hodgson and others are not convinced that the government will treat the issue with the same seriousness planned by Health Canada.

"This is indicative of the government's lack of general commitment to reducing tobacco use in Canada," Hodgson said. "I think that it's become even more of a concern that there's no balancing just when the trend seems to be moving in favor of the huge tobacco companies."

Over the last couple of years, federal and provincial governments have reduced taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products significantly, mostly to combat cross-border smuggling. Combined with a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision striking down a broad ban on tobacco advertising, the trend has been to make access to tobacco products easier and cheaper. This, Hodgson said, is likely to lead directly to increase in smoking.

"We're just now seeing declines attributable to a number of early anti-smoking strategies," Hodgson explained, citing the Canadian Early Smoking Campaign of 20 years ago. "What we've put into place now will have effects a long time from now.

"One of the interesting statistics we have come up with is that, in the Native community, 36 per cent of abstaining children come from abstaining parents," she continued. "That shows that we're into second and third generations of effects here."

Hodgson's national coalition thus expects results from this decision to show themselves in a generation, not in terms measurable to a federal government looking just two years ahead. In addition to the writing campaign, Hodgson expects that Liberal Party fund raises will be asked to exercise their influence in favor of the program.