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QUEBEC — Each cigarette sold in Quebec as of Wednesday costs one cent more in tax, the government announced in Tuesday’s budget plan.
The government has increased the tax on tobacco products by $2 per 200-cigarette carton as of Wednesday, with another $2 increase coming as of Jan. 6, 2025. This will push the average price of a carton up a total of 2.9 per cent, to $141.
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The $4 increase this year comes after an $8 increase announced on Feb. 8, 2023.
At $37.80 per carton, total taxes on tobacco in Quebec are the lowest in Canada, the budget plan notes. Ontario is next lowest at $47.47, and the national average is $65.66.
“Taxation of tobacco products is one of the best measures for controlling tobacco consumption, particularly among young people,” the budget plan says, and the government hopes this measure will help it achieve its goal of reducing the number of smokers to 10 per cent of the population by next year.
The measure is expected to bring in an additional $65 million a year, an amount expected to remain stable despite the planned reduction in smoking.
The budget plan downplays the potential impact on illegal tobacco smuggling, saying that “while vigilance is still needed, the market share of smuggled products has been stable in Quebec for a number of years” at less than 10 per cent of products sold.
Per cigarette, gram of loose tobacco or single tobacco stick, the tax goes up from 18.9 cents on March 12 to 19.9 cents as of March 13 and 20.9 cents as of Jan. 6. The 80-per-cent tax on cigars remains unchanged. Other tobacco products will see their tax go up from 29.07 cents per gram to 30.61 cents on March 13 and 32.15 cents on Jan. 6.
Merchants who sell tobacco products who paid the tax in advance will have to conduct an inventory of all products in stock as of midnight Tuesday and pay the additional tax by April 13. They will need to repeat the inventory process the night of Jan. 5, 2025, and remit those additional taxes by Feb. 8.
Quebec estimates smoking costs $3.8 billion in health costs and kills 13,000 people a year in the province.
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