Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t make a Member’s statement today because I didn’t think we were doing Members’ statements, but now we’re not doing questions, so I’m going to do questions.
In response to my colleague from Range Lake’s Member’s statement about obesity and all those statistics that he put out there, I’d like to talk about smoking a little bit. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions about smoking.
I’m really glad I never started smoking, because it is a really strong addiction, and I don’t have very much willpower and I really, really, first of all, want to say that I do feel sorry for people who are addicted and would like to quit smoking but cannot.
I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, what more can we do as a government to deter people from smoking?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe it was just a couple of days ago that Member Dolynny talked about some of the statistics with respect to smoking and that we are actually finally seeing a bit of a decrease in smoking rates in the Northwest Territories. Having said that, we still have higher rates than pretty much everywhere else in the country and obviously more needs to be done.
We do have some wonderful programs. We’ve all heard of Don’t Be a Butthead, and there are a number of programs out there as well. I know Mr. Moses actually referenced a number of them the other day.
Obviously, we are always open to new ideas. If committee has new ideas that they want to present to us if they want to help us with reduced smoking in the Northwest Territories, we are always open to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we always talk about the sin taxes. What is stopping this government from raising the tax on cigarettes so high that it would even make the most dedicated smokers rethink their habit? Thank you.
I know that in the 16th Assembly we did put a significant increase on taxes for cigarettes and in this budget we did increase the budget for loose tobacco, but as far as increased taxes on tobacco, I would certainly be willing to have that conversation with the Minister of Finance and see where we can go. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Is the Minister of Health and Social Services aware of any downside of putting a really, really deterring kind of a tax on cigarettes? Is he aware of any downside to doing that? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, off the top of my head, the only one that I could think of would actually be potential smuggling and that would be something that we would have to consider as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
One last question. If I go and buy life insurance and I am a smoker, I pay a higher premium. For those that are already addicted, let’s give them a break and say okay, but can’t we go back to some date and say, if you start smoking after this time, you need to think that when you become an adult and you are seeking medical services, or you are going to have to pay a premium on medical services if you smoke. Not for those who are already addicted, but for those that are coming up, the next generation. Could we not create a monetary disincentive to smoke by creating some kind of a health insurance premium? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It’s an intriguing idea and then it could… Obviously, if something like that existed, it could stretch to sugar, it could stretch to other things as well. I don’t know if we actually have the capacity to do something like that, but I would certainly be willing to have some conversations with the department and some more discussions with committee to see what options exist. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
