Ottawa’s Emergency and Protective Services Committee approved a new licence for retailers that sell vapour products on Thursday, Oct. 17, which would impose additional licensing fees on vape shops if adopted by City Council.
Staff said licensing fees collected through this new regime will be used to hire more enforcement officers to help reduce youth access to vapour products.
According to a city staff report, approximately 90 per cent of the city’s licensed tobacco vendors are now also selling vapour products and the number of specialty vape stores operating in Ottawa has increased from 19 stores at the beginning of 2019 to 71 stores operating as of July 2024.
While tobacco vendors must obtain a license from the city with a $930 per year licensing fee, businesses that sell vaping products do not require a license for now. The new fee for retailers selling only vapour products would also be $930 a year, while retailers selling both tobacco and vapour products would have to pay an additional $162 per year for the vapour products license.
The new licensing fees are designed to help fund one or two additional enforcement officers, since it has become increasingly difficult to enforce due to a growing number of retailers and non-compliance issues.
“Recent enforcement data has shown ongoing non-compliance by retailers with SFOA regulations,” said David Kurs, the by-law review specialist for the city’s Public Policy Development Branch.
Under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act (SFOA), it is against the law to sell or supply vapour products to anyone under the age of 19. However, due to these reductions in provincial funding, there are currently only two Tobacco Enforcement Officers (TEOs) in Ottawa to enforce SFOA.
Roger Chapman, Ottawa’s director of by-law and regulatory services, said “it’s a bit of a struggle” to properly enforce the provincial regulations with only two Tobacco Enforcement Officers.
“The TEOs right now are focusing on tobacco retailers that we have continued non-compliance, particularly around the schools and sales to minors,” he told the committee.
In the first six months of 2024, the city issued ten charges for youth accessing specialty vape stores and 28 charges to retailers for selling vapour products to minors.
Ron Couchman, owner of a local vape shop, voiced concerns during the meeting that the city’s consulting process has been limited to emailed surveys with the retailers, which he said were not widely responded to. He also expressed concerns that many minors are getting their vaping products online, instead from local specialty vape shops.
“If people had to go to 19-plus vape shops in order to get vapour products, and that was the only avenue, then I completely agree with you it would make sense to regulate them very heavily,” he said.
Harpreet Grewal, supervisor of the addictions and substance-use health team at Ottawa Public Health, told the committee that her unit has created education modules for young people around the dangers of vaping, cannabis and other substances, and that they are doing outreach into different neighbourhoods to reinforce that message.
“We also recommended restricting product website links or ads on social media and websites to prevent access to users who are underage,” Grewal said.
The bylaw will be presented to the City Council on Oct. 30 for a final decision. If approved, the new license for vapour product retailers would take effect on Nov. 30, 2024.
