Money would go to cancer treatment, research and anti-smoking campaigns
B.C. Premier David Eby says the provincial government could receive $3.5 billion from a $32 billion proposed Canadian settlement with three tobacco companies.
Eby said the money would be used to invest in cancer treatment and primary care, and research into treatments, as well as to promote smoking cessation.
Eby was responding to news of a proposed deal that would see three tobacco giants pay out billions to provinces and territories, as well as smokers across Canada. The deal has been approved by the companies’ creditors, a lawyer representing some of the creditors said Thursday, calling it an important milestone in a lengthy legal saga.
The proposed $32.5-billion global settlement between the companies — JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. — and their creditors was announced in October after more than five years of negotiations.
Representatives for the creditors, which include provincial governments seeking to recover smoking-related health care costs as well as plaintiffs in two Quebec class-action lawsuits, voted on the plan in a virtual meeting Thursday afternoon.
The proposed deal includes $24 billion for provinces and territories, $4 billion for tens of thousands of Quebec smokers and their heirs, and more than $2.5 billion for smokers in other provinces and territories. It also includes more than $1 billion for a foundation to help those affected by tobacco-related diseases.
Eby said B.C. initiated legal action against the three tobacco companies in 1998 and that the deal was “a critical step forward after 20 years of litigation.”
“Tobacco has harmed far too many people, and tobacco companies have avoided accountability for far too long,” Eby said.
“We urge tobacco companies to take responsibility for their deceptive actions and accept this plan.”
The compensation plan will move to a court hearing scheduled for Jan. 29-31, when the court will be asked to grant final approval of the proposal.
At least one of the companies has said it opposes the plan in its current form.
The proposal is the culmination of a corporate restructuring process set off by a decades-long legal battle over the health effects of smoking.
In 2015, a Quebec court ordered the three companies to pay about $15 billion in two class-action lawsuits involving smokers in the province who took up the habit between 1950 and 1998 and either fell ill or were addicted, or their heirs.
Four years later, the landmark ruling was upheld by the province’s Appeal Court. The companies then sought creditor protection in Ontario in order to negotiate a global settlement with their creditors.
All of the legal proceedings against them were put on hold during the talks. That order has now been extended until Jan. 31, 2025.
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With files from Canadian Press