Last year, Manitoba began receiving its share of funds from a settlement the provinces reached with major tobacco companies. Manitoba will be paid out over $1.1 billion over the next 20 years.
The settlement comes after a long legal battle in which provinces sought to recover health-care costs related to smoking. The Manitoba Nicotine and Tobacco Reduction Alliance (MANTRA) estimates those costs totalled $368 million in 2020.
The government plans to spend that money on a new CancerCare headquarters. But experts say some of the money should go towards programs aimed at preventing people from getting addicted in the first place.
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Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.“It is truly the number one cause of preventable disease in Canada,” says Christopher Pascoe, associate professor of physiology and paraphysiology at the University of Manitoba. “And I think that’s kind of the heart of the issue, is you could prevent a lot of this burden on the health-care system if you could prevent people from using it in the first place.”
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Researchers argue that more investment in smoking prevention and cessation programs would drive down health-care costs in the long run. They add that these programs already exist but need to be expanded.
“Where they fall short is they don’t have the wherewithal to deliver them in a provincial-wide manner in a sustained way,” says Andrew Halayko, University of Manitoba professor and Canada Research Chair in Lung Pathobiology and Treatment.
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