Individual cigarettes in Canada will now carry warnings such as “poison in every puff” and “cigarettes cause impotence” in what the government says is an effort to make it “virtually impossible to avoid health warnings altogether”.
The measure, the first of its kind in the world, is part of a sweeping set of new tobacco regulations coming into effect on Tuesday that will see tight controls phased in over the next two years.
“Tobacco use continues to kill 48,000 Canadians each year. We are taking action by being the first country in the world to label individual cigarettes with health warning messages,” said Carolyn Bennett, who was minister of mental health and addictions when the rules were first announced. (Bennett was shuffled out of cabinet last week after announcing her departure from federal politics.)
The move is the latest in a long series of measures to curb smoking from the Canadian government.
The smoking rate in Canada has steadily declined as public awareness of smoking’s dangers has grown. Federal and provincial regulations on tobacco sales, use, taxation and advertising have also led to declining rates in all age groups.
Canada was the first country in the world to require cigarette makers put pictorial warnings on cigarette packages, in 2001. Bans on indoor smoking followed later that decade.
Research suggests that periodically refreshing warnings with new images and text is an effective way to raise awareness of health effects among smokers.
The new rules taking effect this week – known as Tobacco Products Appearance, Packaging and Labelling Regulations (TPAPLR) – mean that the warning messages will change every two to three years, depending on the product.
Canadian Lung Association CEO Terry Dean welcomed the new measures, calling the individual cigarette warnings “quite unique and novel”.
TPAPLR also attempts to standardise the sizes of package health warnings which must now take up at least 75% of cigarette packs’ display areas.
Annie Papageorgiou, executive director of the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health, said it had been more than 10 years since the images were last changed.
Papageorgiou and Dean said they would like to see more regulations on vaping and a tobacco tax hike moving forward, as well as a cost recovery fee levied on tobacco companies.
“We still have too many smokers in Quebec – too many people who are dying from tobacco use. We’ll gladly take anything we can do to protect occasional smokers, new smokers and youth,” she said.
The government says these new regulations bring the country into line with the World Health Organization’s framework convention on tobacco control.
CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
