International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: please follow the tobacco money
B.C. is receiving billions of dollars from the tobacco settlement.
The province has already received a major payment — and Budget 2026 says tobacco-settlement money has helped reduce the provincial deficit.
That raises a question I don't think taxpayers should have to answer for themselves:
Where is the money actually going?
I am asking the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to follow it.
Not because I can prove the money is being misused.
Because billions of public dollars deserve independent scrutiny.
Follow the money from the tobacco companies → to the settlement → to the B.C. government → into the provincial accounts → and ultimately to the programs, departments, contracts or other expenditures it supports.
Show us the paper trail.
How much has B.C. received?
How much has been spent?
How much has gone into general revenue?
How much is being used for prevention?
How much for education?
How much for smoking cessation?
How much for addiction treatment?
How much for mental-health services?
And what about art and creative programs that help prevent addiction, build connection and support healing?
The tobacco industry spent decades selling an addictive product while governments and taxpayers carried enormous health and social costs.
Now there is an opportunity to turn some of that settlement into something that prevents the next generation from becoming addicted in the first place.
Prevention. Education. Treatment. Recovery. Mental health. Art. Community.
I don't want another billion-dollar promise that becomes impossible for ordinary people to trace.
I want the public to be able to follow every dollar.
ICIJ — please follow the money.
Because transparency isn't an accusation.
It's accountability.
#FollowTheMoney #ICIJ #TobaccoSettlement #BritishColumbia #BCPoli #PublicAccountability #Transparency #AddictionPrevention #MentalHealth #ArtsForHealing #PublicHealth
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