Saskatchewan Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett said the government needs to improve its monitoring of the health authority’s enforcement of the sale, promotions and use of tobacco and vapor products.
Clemett published his findings in the Provincial Auditor’s Report 2021 – Volume 2, Chapter 15 on Wednesday.
In the report, Clemett examined the health ministry processes used to monitor the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s (SHA) enforcement of provincial legislative requirements related to tobacco and vapor products. Clemett found that the ministry needs to improve its monitoring of SHAs as an “inconsistent application.”
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The ministry hires young people to try to buy tobacco and vapor products during inspections at the retailers.
The report found that the health ministry does not sufficiently monitor whether inspections of youth test buyers are conducted annually, or that warning letters and infringement notices are immediately sent to non-compliant retailers.
The auditor’s analysis found that 55 percent of the 225 retail locations that were previously sold to young trial buyers did not undergo another inspection within the expected six months. The audit found that re-inspections ranged from seven months to two years after the previous inspection date.
The retailers were also not notified of their breach “promptly.” The auditor’s report determined that it took up to nine weeks after the violation for retailers to be notified.
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Clemett told reporters Wednesday that the ministry does not have a formal deadline to send out notices of violation, but aims to do so within three weeks of the violation.
The audit found that 19 percent of more than 1,200 retail establishments in Saskatchewan did not undergo an annual inspection by SHA tobacco control officers in 2020-21. It also found that the Ministry of Health has not determined “a clear justification and guidance for the frequency of routine inspections.”
“We always encourage and hope that agencies really have risk-based approaches. If the ministry decides it wants to conduct annual routine inspections, if it wants to conduct annual youth testing, buyer inspections, that may be reasonable, ”Clemett said.
“But there’s probably always a question of when you identify through those inspections that there is a non-compliance, that you would go back to retailers who are breaking and breaking the law more often to make sure they don’t continue to do so,” she added.
By not conducting routine inspections frequently, for example annually, there is an increased risk that retailers will not comply with the law, Clemett said.
Health Canada’s 2018-19 Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Survey of Students found that 33 percent of students in grades 7 through 9 and 61 percent of students in grades 10 through 12 in Saskatchewan had tried vaping (with or without nicotine).
The audit said the Health Ministry needed to maintain a complete list of retail outlets that sell tobacco and vapor products, and provide detailed guidance, including deadlines, to tobacco control officers on how to handle complaints.
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Clemett said that during the audit, nine retail establishments were identified that were not in the ministry’s IT system, meaning they were not subject to regular inspection.
The health ministry awards SHA about $ 797,000 in grants for its smoking and vaping prevention, cessation and enforcement activities.
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