Ottawa wants to license vape stores as it does for tobacco

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The City of Ottawa wants new, tougher licensing requirement for its burgeoning number of specialty vape stores.

The number of vape stores has more than tripled in the past five years, growing from 19 in 2019 to 71 in 2024, according to city staff. There are another 365 tobacco vendors, and the city estimates about 85 per cent of those also sell vaping products.

Vaping products include e-cigarettes and vape pens, most of which contain nicotine and can lead to smoking addiction.

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Although stores selling tobacco products need a licence, that’s not yet required of specialty vaping stores.

The number of vape stores has led to an increasing number of charges under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, including stores selling their product to minors. Since 2021, bylaw officers have issued 179 charges for tobacco sales and 216 charges for vapour sales related to the sale and display of products.

Between 2018 and 2021, there were 22 charges for selling vaping products to minors. That figure ballooned to 31 in 2022, 41 in 2023 and 28 in the first six months of 2024. It is illegal for youth under the age of 19 to enter a specialty vape store.

The city receives money from the province to enforce the anti-smoking law, including $250,000 in 2024, which paid for two tobacco enforcement officers. That’s just half the number the city has had in the past.

“Enforcement has been challenged by a decrease in provincial funding for SFOA enforcement,” David Kurs, a bylaw review specialist, told councillors on the emergency preparedness and protective services committee Thursday.

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“Provincial funding for this enforcement has not kept pace with the growing number of retailers or the availability of vapour products.”

Six other Ontario municipalities have implemented vaping store licences — Brampton, Chatham-Kent, Hamilton, London, Oakville, and Toronto — while Oshawa is in the process of developing its laws, according to city staff.

Under the proposal, the vaping specialty stores would have to pay $930 annually for a business licence, the same fee now paid by tobacco vendors. Stores that sell both tobacco and vaping products would pay $1,092 for their licence.

Not only would that “level the playing field” for tobacco and vaping vendors, but revenue from the licensing fees would fund an additional bylaw officer who would manage the new licensing regime, Kurs said.

Committee members unanimously approved the new policy, which now heads to city council for final approval.

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