B.C.’s ‘Cost Recovery’ Act on Vaping, Could Become a Costly Mistake

Canadian Vaping Association Warns Proposed BC Cost Recovery Act Undermines Public Health, Penalizes Harm Reduction, and Threatens Small Business

Toronto, ON, Oct. 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- British Columbia’s proposed Bill 24, aka the Vaping Products Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act seeks to make the regulated vaping industry financially liable for alleged and future public health costs, sets a dangerous precedent for the most effective harm reduction tool for smokers. The legislation has already drawn mounting criticism from industry leaders, harm reduction advocates, academic and medical professionals, who warn that it could penalize adult harm reduction, impose disproportionate burdens on small businesses, and expose taxpayers to years of costly legal challenges.

If enacted, Bill 24 would treat regulated vaping products as though they posed the same public health harms as combustible tobacco or opioids despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. Experts argue that this misclassification ignores the fundamental differences between smoking and vaping and undermines public health progress made through harm reduction (Pesko, 2025).

Misguided Premise, Serious Consequences

The proposed legislation allows the province to recover healthcare costs from vaping manufacturers, mirroring earlier laws targeting tobacco and opioid producers. However, the Canadian Vaping Association argues that vaping has never been shown to cause the same scale of harm or health hazard. The B.C. government did not consult the Canadian Vaping Association, a key stakeholder that represents the industry on this proposed Act.

“Tobacco and opioids have been proven to kill and cause irreparable harm. Vaping has not killed a single Canadian,” said Sam Tam, President of the Canadian Vaping Association (CVA). Even the Government of Canada recognizes that switching completely from smoking to vaping significantly reduces exposure to toxic and cancer-causing chemicals. This kind of harm reduction should be embraced, not punished. It would be irresponsible for the B.C. government to require vaping companies including trade association to pay a fabricated cost without considering their ability to help far more British Columbians.

Despite the nearly 3.9 million Canadians who still smoke and 46,000 smoking-related deaths each year, vaping continues to drive declines in cigarette use and ease the burden on healthcare systems. Yet, Bill 24 treats legal, regulated vaping products as a public health threat rather than a public health solution.

CVA’s Key concerns on Bill 24:

Unintended Consequences for Small Business: The Act would make hundreds of small, locally owned businesses that make up much of the industry uninsurable, threatening small business and jobs at a time when British Columbia’s economy should be protected.

Ignoring Proven Solutions: Youth vaping has seen a nearly 50 percent decline, as published in Statistics Canada’s 2025 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth (Stats Can, 2025) and highlighted in Health Canada's Third Legislative Review (Health Canada, 2025). The focus should be on strengthening enforcement, prevention and education, rather than a broad-brush approach that targets the legal market for an age-gated product.

Opening Taxpayers to Legal Challenges: By laying claims on damages that cannot be scientifically proven against a federally regulated harm reduction product, the BC government is opening itself up to legal challenges that will ultimately be paid for by taxpayers.

Excluding Adult Smokers: The Act ignores the 1.9 million Canadian adults who rely on vaping as a less harmful alternative to smoking cigarettes, denying them a choice and demonizing a legal, regulated industry (Health Canada, 2025).

Vaping and its Flavours Saves Lives: Recent studies published by Dr. Michael Pesko who is on the scientific advisory board on vaping at Health Canada, shows that vaping use introduction increased consumer surplus value by approximately $5.7 billion dollars in the United States. For Canada this would be approximately $692 million dollars. The sum of life years saved from 2007-2019 is 4,491,985, or about 345,537 per year in the United States. For Canada that would be approximately 545,511 or about 41,962 per year. This would indicate that vaping has a greater public health benefit and helps far more people to stop smoking, reducing the healthcare cost burden from smoking related diseases (Pesko, 2025).

“We support efforts to protect youth, tackle the illicit market, and stop deceptive marketing,” said Sam Tam, “but this Act misses the mark. It doesn’t address those concerns; it penalizes the legal industry instead. The Attorney General should follow the federal government’s example and engage directly with us. We understand this industry deeply and want to help shape effective, evidence-based solutions.”

About Us: 
The Canadian Vaping Association represents the legal regulated supply chain to hundreds of small, locally owned vaping businesses across British Columbia and thousands of small businesses nationwide. The association is the primary liaison with the federal and provincial governments on all legislative and regulatory issues related to the industry.

References:

Health Canada (2025) The Third Legislative Review of the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act Discussion Paper https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/programs/consultation-third-legislative-review-tobacco-vaping-products-act/document.html

Health Canada (2025) Health indicator statistics, annual estimates https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1310090501

Pesko (2025) E-Cigarettes in Historical Context—Innovation, Risk, and Regulation
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2840026

Pesko (2025), Pharmaceutical Drug Regulations and Mortality: Evidence from E-cigarettes
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5108105

Statistics Canada (2025) Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, 2025 – Vaping Data Summary https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5233

Sam Tam
The Canadian Vaping Association 
647-271-7629
stam@thecva.org

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