Money the province is getting from a settlement with tobacco companies will go toward building a new CancerCare Manitoba headquarters and other prevention measures, Premier Wab Kinew announced Saturday. Kinew said the initial payment could be anywhere from hundreds of millions to even half a billion dollars. The timeline of when those funds will be injected into the province isn't fully clear yet, but Kinew said he's expecting the first payment to arrive later this year or early 2025.
"It's with the federal government right now, but we expect that it will be a series of payments over time, but the first initial one will be in that order of magnitude," said Kinew following his speech at the gala dinner as part of the ongoing NDP convention. The NDP learned about the possibility of a settlement shortly after taking office and are waiting on more details, but Kinew said the full arrangement could potentially be worth billions. The number of payments after the initial one and how long it will take to receive the entire settlement sum also isn't known yet.
"Those are details that will come out when the settlement gets concluded, that's with the federal government right now," said Kinew. Manitoba sued major tobacco companies to recover the costs of providing health-care services for tobacco-related illness under the then NDP government in 2012. Lawsuits by all 10 provinces named Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and JTI-Macdonald.
The cases were stalled by a range of cour.
