The Quebec government has launched a five-year plan to curb smoking and tobacco use in the province. Public Health Director Dr.
Horacio Arruda unveiled the government strategy on Friday, ahead of World No Tabacco Day on May 31. While the smoking rate in the province has decreased in the past decades, it has stagnated at around 18 per cent of the Quebec population between 2014 and 2018 with the number of smokers in Quebec estimated to be around 1,3 million.
The target is to bring smoking down to 10 per cent of the Quebec population by 2025. Arruda says that because of the deaths — around 13,000 annually — illnesses and the financial burden it causes, smoking remains a public health priority in Quebec and even more so in light of the novel