TORONTO - The Ontario government is making it easier for smokers to butt out by removing provincial sales taxes on all over-the-counter smoking cessation products.
As of Aug. 13, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, including nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, inhalers, sprays and tablets will be exempt from PST, Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson said Monday.
Watson said the announcement translates into a savings of about $24 for a person spending about $300 over 10 weeks. The program is expected to cost the provincial government approximately $5 million in tax revenue a year.
"The price of nicotine replacement therapy should not be more than the price of cigarettes. Today we are helping to try to reverse that trend,'' he said, noting there is still a significant disparity.
"What we're trying to do is take away an economic barrier for people, to give them one more incentive to go out and try NRT.''
Watson also called on the federal government to follow Ontario's lead and repeal the GST on similar products.
"This move would demonstrate to Ontario smokers that the federal government is also serious about tobacco cessation,'' he said.
Watson said this initiative is one of many smoking cessation programs that receive government funding.
He said other ventures, such as the Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients study, have helped 31,000 smokers kick the habit through free NRT and counselling services.
Anna Prezament, a 56-year-old who kicked her 43-year smoking habit just 10 months ago, said the programs gave her a second chance at life.
"Since I've stopped smoking my health has greatly improved,'' she said. "I go to the gym twice a week. I do gardening. I now cook because I have tastebuds and I can taste food and I've discovered that I'm not a bad cook at all.''
It's important for the government to continue supporting programs that enable smokers to butt out, she added.
Conservative Tim Hudak slammed the announcement, suggesting it amounts to just a few bucks back in people's pockets. He said it's merely a way for the Liberals to divert attention from the $32 million multicultural funding boondoggle that led to last week's resignation of Citizenship and Immigration Minister Mike Colle.
"Basically this is a political smokescreen to deflect attention from Dalton McGuinty's $32 million Liberal slush fund,'' he said.
Ontario's anti-smoking lobby, however, welcomed the announcement as an important first step.
Dr. Peter Selby of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health said smoking appears to be a bigger problem among Ontario's poorest residents, including those with other mental health problems, and suggests anything the government can do to reduce financial barriers to quitting is a good thing.
"We know from a disparity perspective that in Canada, the mortality difference between the upper socioeconomic group of men versus the lower socioeconomic group of men can be accounted for by their smoking status,'' he said.
"This announcement today... has been really a good step in removing one additional barrier that some smokers might have in accessing evidence-based treatments.''
Smoking kills an average of 16,000 people in Ontario each year, while tobacco-related diseases cost the health care system about $1.6 billion annually. Smoking accounts for at least 500,000 hospital days each year and is blamed for more than $4.4 billion in productivity losses.
