NWT - A new report shows smoking is declining among NWT youth.

Bryce Maher and Mercedie Beaulieu, two students at Hay River's Diamond Jenness Secondary School, show how they feel about cigarettes. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Occasional and daily smokers among youth declined from 23.5 per cent in 1982 to 11.7 per cent by 2006.

The report – Youth Smoking in the Northwest Territories: A Descriptive Summary of Smoking Behaviour among Grades 5 to 9 – was released by the Department of Health and Social Services.

The report is a summary of the findings of the 2006 NWT School Tobacco Survey.

"Programs and services are designed and working to de-normalize the use of tobacco, and I'm very happy to see that they are having a real, positive effect," said Health and Social Services Minister Sandy Lee.

"It's not normal to smoke now," she said, noting that is recognized even by smokers. "They're doing it knowing it's bad for them."

The downward trend was attributed to changing attitudes as a result of anti-smoking programs targeting youth, such as the Don't Be a Butthead campaign.

Lee said the government is not letting up on its campaign to encourage youth not to take up the smoking habit.

"I think you have to acknowledge the campaign is working on youth," she said. "The work never ends."

The report states youth tobacco use in the NWT continues to be a large public health and social problem above the Canadian average.

A common pattern found throughout the report was that aboriginal youth, particularly in small communities, are at highest risk of taking up smoking.

"This is still an ongoing concern," Lee said, although she noted young people in small communities are getting the anti-smoking message.

"I'm certain smoking rates will go down in small communities, too," she said. "The trend is downward."

A check with two students at Hay River's Diamond Jenness Secondary School confirms fewer young people are smoking.

Bryce Maher, a 14-year-old Grade 8 student, said the 11.7 per cent estimate for youth smokers sounds right to him.

"Nobody ever did smoke, not most of my friends," he said, adding he has never smoked.

Mercedie Beaulieu, a 14-year-old Grade 9 student, has also never smoked and she said only some of her friends smoke.

Both students believe the government's anti-smoking campaign is having an effect on young people.

However, the campaigns don't influence all young people, Beaulieu said. "They'll probably smoke anyhow."

Lee said things have changed over the years when it comes to smoking, noting when she attended Yellowknife's Sir John Franklin High School in the early 1980s one teacher smoked in the classroom.