PAWEL DWULIT/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Smoking is getting more expensive. The tobacco tax, unchanged since 2002, will be increased to account for inflation – amounting to a tax hike of roughly two cents per cigarette, or $4 per carton. The lower price paid for tobacco at duty-free stores is also being cancelled.

“We were pleased. … We believe we’ll get an impact from that. It’ll decrease the number of young people, in particular, who start smoking,” said Pamela Fralick, president of the Canadian Cancer Society.

The tobacco changes will bring the government more than $685-million next year, and slightly less each year after, for a total of $3-billion in new tax revenue over five years. The RCMP will get $91.7-million over the same period to fight contraband tobacco.

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien lowered tobacco taxes 20 years ago, in February, 1994, to fight the flow of contraband cigarettes, largely at the urging of Quebec. Other provinces were forced to follow suit.