Vape flavour ban will shutter 400 stores: Vaping Shops Alliance

Quebec Vape Shops worry about survival A spokesperson for about 400 vape shops in the province says they will all likely be forced to close when new regulations come into effect.

A group of vaping shops says the abolition in three months of the right to market flavours for vaping products, as announced Wednesday by the Quebec government, will lead to the closure of 400 vaping shops in Quebec.

Quebec Vaping Shops Alliance spokesperson David Lévesque said his industry represents more than $300 million in economic benefits and that the 400 independent shops employ more than 2,200 people.

In unveiling the new regulation on vaping, Health Minister Christian Dubé said it would ban non-tobacco flavours for vaping. Flavours account for the bulk of sales in vaping shops.

The government's draft regulation provides for a 45-day consultation period, but shops must stop selling flavours in 90 days.

Dubé said that young people were the primary target of his proposed regulations, as a survey cited by his government showed that the proportion of young people who vaped increased fivefold in six years, from 4 per cent in 2013 to 21 per cent in 2019.

The minister admitted, however, that he expected his decision to lead to smuggling, that people might get vaping flavours via the internet.

In this regard, the Quebec Vaping Shops Alliance predicts that within days, organized crime, Ontario-based websites and Indigenous communities will take over the supply of new customers.

The Alliance hopes the Quebec government will put in place compromise solutions that would limit access to youth while saving vaping businesses.

LISTEN on CJAD 800: Say goodbye to your flavoured vape, Quebec will soon be banning them

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 20, 2023.