National ban on vaping flavours coming 'soon,' says addictions minister

The minister of mental health and addictions says the federal government will ban most vape flavours across Canada soon — more than three years after Ottawa first promised to bring in the regulations.

"We have made a commitment from the start to restrict flavours. We haven't wavered from that," Ya'ara Saks told CBC News last week.

"We will have this in place soon. I don't anticipate this is going to take much longer." She did not specify a timeline.

Saks' promise comes after a coalition of anti-tobacco health groups held a press conference in Ottawa earlier this month to call on Saks to introduce the ban swiftly or resign.

They accused her of bowing to vaping industry pressure by failing to finalize the regulations this spring, as the federal government had planned.

Back in June 2021, citing a "rapid increase in youth vaping in Canada," Health Canada vowed to restrict vaping flavours to mint, menthol and tobacco.

"The availability of a variety of desirable flavours is believed to have contributed to the rise in youth vaping," Health Canada said at the time, pointing to research that shows young people are more likely to start vaping with fruity and sweet flavours.

Three years after that warning, Canada now has one of the highest teen vaping rates in the world; Statistics Canada reports nearly half of all young adults have tried vaping. Most new vape users — 86 per cent — were never cigarette smokers, according to the most recent Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey.

"We know that young people are being exposed to vaping first now," Saks said.

While Ottawa has spent the last three years consulting on regulations, six provinces and territories have brought in their own flavour bans: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Quebec.

Saks said the delay in national regulations is due to the fact that Health Canada wants to learn from Quebec's experience. That province banned flavours a year ago.

"We've … seen in jurisdictions like Quebec, where banning of flavours has led to an illicit market that is accessible," she said. "So as we move forward with this, we want to make sure that we get it right."

The federal government wants to make sure the regulations will be enforceable and won't inadvertently encourage underground flavoured vape sales, she said.

"Just to be clear, there is no slow-walking of this," Saks said. "It's a matter of what are the lessons that we can learn right now?"