Critical Analysis of Canada's Tobacco Strategy

Running head: HEALTH REFORM OBSERVER
Health Reform Observer
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HEALTH REFORM OBSERVER
Title
Critical analysis of the Canada’s Tobacco Strategy
Abstract
The following health reform paper conducted a critical analysis of the Canada’s
Tobacco Strategy. Analysis of the strategy was done from the perspective of the Kingdom
2003 model and 3-Is model of the policy implementation by Lavis et al. (2012). The use of
this model helped to understand the path which has been travelled towards designing this
policy. The current state of the tobacco consumption in Canada with a special focus on the
territorial province, British Columbia showed that the level of death toll arising out of
smoking induced lung cancer is high in British Columbia. The level is going to increase in
the upcoming years and the main reason behind this is smoking. This statistics helped in
analysing how this policy will be effective in improving the health structure of the Canadian
territory province. At the end, the paper discussed about the process through which the
reform was achieved and the process of evaluation of the reform. The SWOT analysis of the
policy revealed that the main weakness of this policy reform is it has no specific evaluation
strategy and adequate funding was highlighted as the main strength.
Keywords used
Health reforms, tobacco, smoking
Key messages
 Smoking, both active and passive is detrimental to life
 Active approach from the government through adequate funding and framing of the
reforms will be instrumental in reducing the ill-effects of smoking

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HEALTH REFORM OBSERVER
 The government must critically analyse the gaps in the healthcare needs in order to
devise the reforms and special focus must be given for the indigenous population and
LGBT community
Description of the health policy reform
Under the Smoking Prevention policy reform, the government of Canada as proposed
5% reduction in smoking of tobacco by the end of 2035 in order to decrease the rate of
staggering death arising out of increase in the burden of tobacco use. According to the
Government of Canada (2018), reaching this target will help to save millions of live and
billions of dollars. The smoking prevention policy reform also provides legislative along with
regulatory efforts in order to protect non-smokers and youth. In order to give proper coverage
to the youth, Tobacco and Vaping Products Act is taken under enforcement. Thus it can be
said that the Canada’s Tobacco Strategy represents a shift towards more comprehensive and
integrated approach of addressing the use of tobacco. The tobacco prevention strategy mainly
includes cessation support, protection of young tobacco users and non-tobacco users,
encouragement behind the use of vapping products and proper surveillance and research1.
History and context
Tobacco use in Canada continues to be a leading yet preventable problem underlying
the premature death. While the use of tobacco has decreased, a significant percentage of the
Canadian population still use tobacco. Smoking of cigarette results premature death of 45,000
Canadian per year 1. According to the statistics published by the Government of Canada, each
year there are 23, 000 deaths of Canadian adults for smoking. Each day 100 Canadians die
due to smoking related illness. Exposure to second hand smoke causes smoking-related
deaths arising from cancer, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases 1. One of the
Canadian Territory Province which counts for high toll of smoking related deaths is British

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HEALTH REFORM OBSERVER
Columbia. In British Columbia (Canadian Territory Province) the rate of incidence of lung
cancer is high and the main reason behind this is smoking2.
Figure: Lung Cancer Statistics in British Columbia2
Projected Mortality Rate of Lung Cancer (2)
Diagnosis Year Male Female
2000 51.7 33.8
2005 49.3 35.3
2010 39.9 33.3
2015 35.5 30.3
Incidence of Lung Cancer in British Columbia (2)
Diagnosis Year Male Female
2000 1273 1101
2005 1398 1275