The war on vapes: More taxes and less flavours
When it comes the vaping, the Canadian government has been anything but accommodating. Since the inception of the vaping phenomenon our government has slowly waged a war against what it sees as a very real threat to the health of our country’s youth, rather than a useful smoking cessation tool. Although the dust seemed to settle for a significant period of time it seems as though the vape industry is in Health Minister Mark Holland’s crosshair and the impending changes could see many businesses forced to close down and many vapers with no access to their favorite products. Information released this past week indicates our time enjoying the wide array of delectable tastes is coming to and end with a flavour ban likely to come into effect in the near future. For us Ontarians this comes after recent news of the new increased excise tax that will raise industry prices by nearly 30%. With all the problems plaguing this country is laughable that such time and effort is being put into a fighting something that has saved so many lives.
The flavour ban in Canada has been in the works for quite sometime now. Many in the Canadian vape market feared the worst was over and that perhaps the effort had been swept under the rug indefinitely. Now new legislation threatens the entire industry with extreme changes that will limit the allowable sale of vapes to tobacco, mint, or menthol flavours; effectively destroying thousands of small businesses nation wide instantaneously. The appointment of former heart and stroke employee, Mark Holland, as the minister of health has seemingly lead to a fixation on the banning of flavours. There are many efforts in place to have the voices of the vape industry heard, the most notable being a petition with a goal of 50,000 signatures, a small portion of the approximately two million vapers Canada wide. The link can be found here should you decide to join the fight! https://ecigarettescanada.com/stop-the-vape-juice-flavour-ban-sign-the-petition.html
The truth is even if by some miracle the flavour ban is just a scary made up specter like the boogey man, the new taxation due to come into effect this summer is going to cause enough damage as it is. The already significant taxation of vapes in Canada makes us ones of the most, if not the most expensive country to vape in the entire world. With the government hardly lifting a finger and bringing in billions of dollars on excise taxes its no surprise that they’ve decided to dip their hands back in the honey jar. The tax will increase to $1 CAD for every 2Ml or e liquid effectively raising the price of most products between 25-30%. This will burn an even bigger hole in vapers pockets but for many i’m sure its better than going back to smoking. If protecting the youth from vaping is the major goal the increased tax seems a strong enough measure to accomplish that although if we are able to regulate and protect our youth from alcohol, cannabis, and cigarettes without banning them altogether it seems rather strange that vapes be treated any differently.
As a vape store owner of course this issue is extremely personal to me, however, aside from my business being in danger of being unsustainable which is scary enough, it is also scary to see the government exert so much power to infringe upon our freedoms and make decisions for us. With the clear health benefits when compared to smoking it begs the question of what exactly the true motivation behind this initiative is. Is big tobacco loosing too much money? Does the government not expect this to create a large illegal market? Is the expectation that many will go back to smoking? These and many more questions surrounding these particularly odd recent set of decisions need to be addressed.
