Smoking rates higher in northeastern Ontario, according to new Public Health Ontario data
CBC
The Timiskaming Health Unit district in northeastern Ontario has the highest smoking rates in the province.
According to Public Health Ontario's latest numbers, which cover 2019 and 2020, 22 per cent of people in the Timiskaming region smoke. Ontario's smoking rates are 10.1 per cent.
Other parts of northeastern Ontario also have higher smoking rates than the province as a whole.
The North Bay Parry Sound Health Unit district has smoking rates of 13.5 per cent, in the Algoma district they're 16.2 per cent, and in the Porcupine Health Unit district the rates are 20.9 per cent.
Laurel Beardmore, a health promoter with the Timiskaming Health Unit, said the region's more rural, and older population are key contributors to the higher smoking rates.
Michael Chaiton, the director of research for the Ontario Tobacco Research Institute, said smoking rates are generally higher in more rural areas.
"They're also associated with things like education and poverty, which may also be higher in the northern regions," he said.
While rates are higher in northeastern Ontario, they have gone down from previous years. In 2015 and 2016, for example, more than 25 per cent of people in the Timiskaming Health Unit district smoked. Ontario's smoking rates at that time were around 13 per cent.
Chaiton said the COVID-19 pandemic meant health units shifted their focus away from their smoking cessation programs and campaigns for a time.
"We've had some distractions, I think that the public health units in Ontario are kinda back on the job now," he said.
"They were sort of refocused on COVID but they're now returning to thinking about addressing things like cigarette smoking."
Beardmore, of the Timiskaming Health Unit, agrees.
"We're just starting to get back to addressing these issues," she said.
Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, says the province needs to make tobacco less accessible to youth to bring smoking rates down.
Premier Doug Ford says his government plans to give Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport special designation that would allow the province to bypass municipal and provincial laws as it pushes to expand the runway downtown.
Jenelle Hughes says she worries every time her two older children take their car to get to Fanshawe College in London, Ont., from their home in Dutton.
Oil prices fell Monday morning after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would hold off on striking Iran’s energy infrastructure amid productive talks between the two countries.
While spring technically started late last week, Newfoundland and Labrador isn't free from winter weather just yet.
The Sudbury School Bus Consortium is suspending all school buses in Greater Sudbury as the community continues to clean up following a major storm.
Two large corporate landlords owning a combined 9,008 rental units in Halifax are reporting smaller annual increases in their average rents for 2025 than the previous year.
The Holt government has reached a deal with Ottawa on compensation for tens of millions of dollars in lost sales tax revenue from the Christmas season in 2024.
The government of Saskatchewan has announced plans to reduce the length of non-resident game bird hunting licences to combat illegal guiding.
An 87-year-old Alberta man is fighting extradition to the United Kingdom to stand trial for historical allegations of physical and sexual assault involving minors.
Eight casinos across southwest B.C. have been sold to First Nations in the last two years, with the province's gambling scene set to be reshaped as a result.
Hamilton hosts the Junos Sunday, and the musical awards show is bringing tourists, musicians, concerts and a ton of themed events to the city this week.
The multi-million-dollar deal at the heart of a high-profile fight between the Canadian government and one of the world’s biggest carmakers contains multiple clauses about the company’s footprint in Ontario, according to a copy obtained by CBC Windsor.
In recent months, Calgary police have carried out three day-long safety blitzes, parading out dozens of officers to flood an area with their increased presence — at least, temporarily.