Consensus statement
2026 Roundtable on Reducing Tobacco and Nicotine Use in Canada
Participants in the 2026 Tobacco and Nicotine Endgame Roundtable for Canada, held in Ottawa, strongly support the continued objective of achieving a tobacco use prevalence of less than 5% by 2035. This objective was set at the 2016 Summit on Creating a Tobacco Endgame for Canada, held at Queen’s University. The target was formally adopted by Health Canada in 2018, when launching Canada’s Tobacco Strategy.
Important progress has been achieved towards the target of under 5% tobacco use by 2035. However, since 2018, there has been increased recreational use of nicotine products such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, with particular concern regarding their use by youth and young adults.
Therefore, achieving a nicotine use prevalence of less than 5% by 2045, in addition to a tobacco use prevalence of less than 5% by 2035, is essential. Beyond these target dates, the objective of under 5% tobacco and nicotine prevalence should be actively pursued for all population subgroups.
We call on federal, provincial and territorial governments to endorse these targets and urgently proceed to implement a comprehensive series of initiatives to achieve and exceed them.
Attendees included representatives from the Canadian Lung Association, Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke, Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, Ottawa Heart Institute and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) were present at the roundtable meeting