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Nunavut to sue tobacco companies Jeanne Gagnon Northern News Services Published Monday, August 15, 2011
Nunavut has the highest smoking rate in the country, according to Statistics Canada. In 2010, 54.4 per cent of people aged 12 and up in the territory smoked, compared to 21 per cent nationally. Nunavut Justice Minister Keith Peterson said he met his colleague in the NWT in 2009 to explain how Nunavut would like to proceed with the tobacco-recovery legislation, also asking the NWT for its help accessing health records that could date back as far as the 1950s or 1960s. There is also a developing consensus that the provinces and territories should join forces to pursue a lawsuit together, said Peterson, adding there is strength in numbers. The territorial government has still not chosen the law firm to represent Nunavut in this case but it is hoping to make a decision sometime this fall, said Peterson. "We are taking our time evaluating everything very closely. I believe there were three firms that submitted proposals," he said. "This is a big step for Nunavut so we have to make a very careful decision." The amount of money the territory wants to recover has not been finalized. "I'd say in the order of magnitude in the hundreds of millions," said Peterson. "But it's premature. We have to do a lot of research to put an actual number on it." It's not all about money, he added, as the territory wants the big tobacco companies to educate young people about the harmful effects of smoking.
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