Tobacco giants would pay out $32.5B to provinces, smokers in ‘historic’ proposed deal – CBC
Proposal calls for compensation for smokers as well as governments
Oct 18, 2024
Three tobacco giants are proposing to pay close to $25 billion to provinces and territories and more than $4 billion to tens of thousands of Quebec smokers and their loved ones as part of a corporate restructuring process triggered by a long-running legal battle.
A proposed plan of arrangement was filed in an Ontario court Thursday after the companies — JTI-Macdonald Corp., Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. — spent more than five years in negotiations with their creditors.
The companies sought creditor protection in Ontario in early 2019 after they lost an appeal in a landmark court battle in Quebec.
The Ontario court put all legal proceedings against the companies on hold as they tried to work out a deal with their creditors, which include the plaintiffs in two Quebec class-action lawsuits as well as provincial governments seeking to recover smoking-related health-care costs.
