Monday September 15, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC [Posted at 12:59 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The BC Government will receive a portion of funds from a settlement with the tobacco industry as to harms inflicted on people through the use of tobacco.
The tobacco industry was found in court to have continued to promote the use of their products while knowing the harms, such as lung disease and cancer.
The big numbers:
The province is to receive an amount stated today as $3.7 billion over 18 years. When BC’s Attorney General announced the successful settlement back in August, it sounded like an annual amount over 18 years. Today it was revealed that $2.7 billion is being record in the Budget year 2025 to reflect legal costs and discounting to reflect the long term nature of the payment schedule.
That is part of a $32.5-billion Canadian settlement between JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. and their creditors after more than five years of negotiations.
Minister Bailey was challenged by BC Press Gallery media today as to the strategy of making this year’s bottom line deficit look smaller by showing the full windfall in the first quarter (April to June) of 2025.
Bailey seemed a bit perplexed as to the media’s view that the assignment of funds was somehow to distract from the overall budget deficit (which at $11.6 billion is $665 million more than projected).
Minister Bailey outlined that it is customary in the world of accounting that the full amount of a receivable will show as revenue in the year it is received, but be balanced off in future budget years with the recording of actual cash received over the 18-year period of the payout.
Where the funds will go:
Does this money get dropped into general revenues or go toward the Health Ministry budget? The political answer from Finance Minister Brenda Bailey today is that the funds will go to “core services” in health-care delivery.
She highlighted the continued build-out of cancer treatment centres as part of her reply, eluding to the funds not being specifically earmarked for lung cancer treatment but being used to prop up health system costs.
Cancer treatment, or more?
Island Social Trends is awaiting a further statement from the Finance Minister and/or Health Minister Josie Osborne as to what other aspects of the BC budget are associated with tobacco-related illness.
Will funds be further attributed to preventive health care and educational programs about smoking, or is the Province’s tobacco-related health strategy already where it needs to be?
Will the public be guided to see the tobacco settlement revenues as a further benefit to health care in BC, or just an operational financial windfall for the government albeit to help catch up for long-term expenses in lung care that have already been undertaken?
C Cancer programs underway:
BC launched a permanent, comprehensive province-wide screening program in Spring 2022.
The Lung Cancer Program at BC Cancer strives to decrease the incidence and mortality of lung cancer and improve the quality of life of lung cancer patients through a comprehensive strategy of prevention, early detection, timely diagnosis and personalized therapy. BC Cancer is also looking at new drug targets and overcoming treatment resistance.
Lung Cancer Canada continues to advocate for more equitable access to screening across the country.
Having a genetic predisposition to developing lung cancer is outlined by the BioScience Institute.
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NEWS SECTIONS: 43rd BC PARLIAMENT | HEALTH