Health Canada and Dr. John Oyston Meeting – June 5, 2023

Subject:

A meeting was held at the request of Dr. John Oyston to discuss the potential role of less harmful nicotine products in the tobacco end-game goal.

Date:

June 5, 2023

Participants:

Health Canada (HC)

• Kendal Weber, Assistant Deputy Minister, Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch (CSCB)
• Sonia Johnson, Director General, Tobacco Control Directorate (TCD), CSCB

External:

• Dr. John Oyston MB BS, BMedSci, FRCA, FRCP(C)

Introduction:

A meeting was held at the request of Dr. John Oyston to provide Health Canada with information regarding less harmful sources of nicotine and the end goal of reducing tobacco use to less than 5% by 2035.

Health Canada opened the meeting with round table introductions.

Given that the participant has done work with the tobacco industry in the last five years, Health Canada reminded the participant that this meeting is subject to disclosure as per HC'sOpenness and Transparency policies. In the interest of transparency, the Department stated that it would be making a record of the meeting publicly available. The handling of information and privacy notice was mentioned and acknowledged.

HC also referred to Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, its international obligation to protect tobacco control policies from the vested interests of the tobacco industry.

Subjects:

Dr. Oyston provided information on the following:

• Educating people who smoke directly and personally about relative risk of vaping and smoking
• Encouraging people who work in vape stores to communicate with customers about relative risks
• Using social media to educate Canadians about vaping
• Educating health care providers on vaping

Conclusion:

The meeting was then concluded.

Documents:

• Agenda as provided by Dr. John Oyston