Province to take wait-and-see approach to menthol smokes ban

The Government of Saskatchewan will take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to a ban on menthol-flavoured cigarettes, Health Minister Dustin Duncan said this afternoon. 

He said the province will observe how other provinces handle a ban on flavoured tobacco products first. 

"We don't actually know how well [bans on menthol cigarettes] work or don't work because nobody's actually implemented them," Duncan said. 

In May, Nova Scotia became the first jurisdiction in the world to ban flavoured tobacco products. Alberta and Ontario have also adopted bans of their own. 

Duncan's comments come after Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose said on Monday that the government of Saskatchewan was very resistant to imposing a national ban on menthol-flavoured cigarettes. Ambrose said that discussions about a nation-wide ban on flavoured tobacco products were bogged down over the question of menthol cigarettes. 

"I guess I would disagree with the categorization that Minister Ambrose has shared publicly," Duncan said. "There certainly wasn't a discussion whether or not Saskatchewan would support a federal ban."