The PEI government welcomes news of proposed payouts by tobacco giants

The Prince Edward Island government is backing a proposal to make giant tobacco companies pay nearly $25 billion in reparations to Canada’s provinces and territories.

The money would partially cover what their governments have paid over the years to treat health problems related to smoking.

PEI was one of the provinces that filed a lawsuit to recover the costs.

JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. negotiated for more than five years before a proposed agreement was reached was filed Thursday in an Ontario court.

“This case concerns alleged unlawful practices by the tobacco companies from the 1950s through the 1980s,” a spokesperson for the PEI Department of Justice and Public Safety said in an email to CBC News on Monday.

“These practices resulted in extraordinary costs to our healthcare system and we wanted to recoup those costs. The Province of PEI strongly supports the plan, its benefits to the residents of the province and the provincial healthcare system, and will support it through the court approval process.”

The major cigarette companies sought protection from creditors in Ontario more than five years ago after losing an appeal in a major lawsuit in Quebec.

The proposed plan of settlement filed Thursday also addressed that class action lawsuit. If approved, it would ultimately pay out more than $4 billion to tens of thousands of Quebec smokers and their loved ones for tobacco-related health problems.

They would each be eligible for up to $100,000, and “except in certain cases, class members are not required to obtain proof of diagnosis to file a claim,” an investigator said. site describing the proposed settlement.

In addition, more than $2.5 billion will go to smokers in other provinces and territories who can prove they were diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, throat cancer or lung cancer between March 2015 and March 2019. The payments could be up to $60,000 each.

The PEI spokesperson’s statement also mentioned that part of the deal.

“It provides financial compensation to individual smokers, including those who have joined class action lawsuits, and it provides financial compensation to health care systems that have and continue to pay the health care costs of treating smoking-related diseases.”

Under the proposed plan, provinces and territories would be paid over time, with about $6 billion initially provided.

When the PEI government filed its first claim against the companies in 2012, a lawyer said it would cover health care costs attributable to smoking during the period when tobacco companies were aware of the dangers of using their products, starting in 1953.