B.C. to get about $3.7 billion in tobacco lawsuit settlement

B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma responds to questions outside B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Monday Nov. 27, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

British Columbia’s share of a landmark settlement for health damages from the big tobacco firms will be about $3.7 billion, the province’s attorney general said Thursday, with the money to be distributed over at least 18 years.

It’s part of a $32.5-billion Canadian settlement between JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. and their creditors after more than five years of negotiations.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has approved the settlement, which Sharma described as the largest in Canadian history and the third-largest worldwide.

“These companies knowingly sold a product that causes addiction, disease and death, all while hiding the truth and prioritizing their profits over people’s lives,” she told a news conference outside the legislature in Victoria.

Smoking has taken a “devastating toll” on families, communities and the health-care system, she said.

The money B.C. receives will go directly toward strengthening the health-care system and helping offset government spending on care for people who suffer smoking-related illnesses, Sharma said.

The province is set to receive about $900 million in the first year and a percentage of its settlement amount every year going forward, she said.

Sharma said B.C. had been leading the way for two decades in working to hold big tobacco companies accountable for “knowingly withholding the truth” about the harmful impacts of their products.

“We have to remember a time when this litigation started where smoking and tobacco companies were not telling people about the harm that their products were doing,” she said, adding there is greater understanding now about those harms.

She said the pan-Canadian legal battle started in B.C. in the late 1990s, with the passage of the Tobacco Damages Recovery Act.

“This is not just about financial compensation, because we know that there will never be enough money to undo the harm and damage caused by these deceptive practices,” Sharma said.

“This is about ensuring that there are real consequences for corporate wrongdoing and taking steps to prevent further harm.”

In a statement reacting to the settlement, Premier David Eby said his government would “continue to be relentless in pursuing legal avenues to get justice for those harmed by bad corporate actors who put profits over people’s health.”

The province has worked to cut the smoking rate by more than half since the legal action began, from 21 per cent to less than nine per cent.

This report by Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2025.