Ontario cuts funding for anti-smoking program

Thestar.com
May 31, 2019
Rob Ferguson

A 19-year program aimed at getting young adults to quit smoking is butting out after losing its funding from the Ontario government as cuts from Premier Doug Ford’s spring budget continue to take hold.

Leave The Pack Behind, which got its start on university and college campuses in 2000, will no longer get about $1 million in support from the Ministry of Health, anti-smoking advocates said Thursday.

The program is “absolutely key” to reducing the number of smokers as young men and women leave high school and move into higher education or the working world, said Dr. Robert Schwartz, who heads the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at the University of Toronto.

He credited Leavethepackbehind.org with helping more than 2,800 students quit smoking last year through phone apps, counselling, free nicotine patches and gum and other aids, including email support and an online tipsheet. Officials from Leave The Pack Behind at their Brock University office in St. Catharines did not reply to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province is “taking a comprehensive approach to better co-ordinate and streamline Ontario’s health care system and reduce duplication.”

“While our government made the decision to not renew one-time funding for the Leave the Pack Behind program, we continue to fund several programs and services that protect the public from the harmful effects of tobacco use and help more people quit smoking,” Hayley Chazan added in a statement.

“These include the STOP Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, among many others.”

The end of Leave The Pack Behind opens a “gaping hole” in smoking cessation efforts because smoking increases “significantly” when kids finish high school and face challenges and stress in college or university or on the job, often away from home, said Michael Perley, director of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco.

“This program was great value for the money,” he added, maintaining the funding would keep more young adults from smoking and save health-care costs in the longer term. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

The website for Leave the Pack Behind says research shows that many young adults start as “social smokers” hanging out with friends, then get hooked and become full-time smokers.

Other budget-related cuts have included funding for stem cell research, tree planting and artificial intelligence research.

Finance Minister Vic Fedeli has repeatedly said the government needs to reduce its costs in order to eliminate annual budget deficits within five years.