Scott's broader commentary on federal accountability and national reform — kept deliberately separate from the Vancouver mayoral platform.
This page sets out Scott Gilbert's personal, national-level views. They are not part of the Vancouver mayoral platform and would not be the work of a Mayor of Vancouver. They are included for full transparency about Scott's wider thinking. The municipal campaign — the DTES, public safety, affordability, spending, and AI at City Hall — stands on its own.
Many independent reports and public inquiries have found systemic problems at the RCMP — and many have repeatedly concluded that the institution is incapable of changing itself. So many recommendations have been made, and despite decades, only a handful have actually been implemented.
Scott's own research points to three further matters he believes would push public trust in the institution below the level at which the public has lost confidence in it and it would need to be replaced entirely.
He argues that, faced with that, the more dramatic remedies he raises — including closer integration with the United States to force a fresh start at the federal police and CBSA — deserve open public debate. Month-by-month FOI disclosures he obtained are central to that case.
You can read the full AI-assisted analysis in the documents below and review the supporting research at the links provided.
Longer-form commentary and the supporting research behind the national case. All authored by Scott Gilbert with AI assistance.
A 50-Year Smoke-Free Canada Policy
Canada will not end smoking by simply moving smokers six metres away from doors. That rule may reduce second-hand smoke exposure, but it does not remove the daily retail triggers that keep cigarettes normal, visible, convenient, and easy to restart.
Scott supports a national policy to remove commercial cigarettes from convenience stores, gas stations, grocery checkouts, and ordinary retail counters. Current adult smokers would not be criminalized. Instead, Canada would shift commercial tobacco into strictly controlled adult-only access channels while massively expanding quit supports and helping small businesses transition away from tobacco revenue.
The goal is simple: make cigarettes harder to start, easier to quit, and impossible to sell to minors.
These are Scott's personal national-level views. Vancouver cannot rewrite Canada's tobacco laws alone. The serious version of this policy requires:
Federal action under the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act and criminal-law authority
Provincial action over retail licensing and sales channels
Municipal support through advocacy, local transition pilots, and public-health partnerships
See the Vancouver action box below for what a Scott Gilbert administration can actually do at City Hall.
A phased, harm-reduction-first national framework — not prohibition, not criminalization of existing adult smokers.
Over a five-year transition, commercial cigarette sales would be phased out from convenience stores, gas stations, grocery checkout counters, and general retail. This is not prohibition — it is a supply-side public-health policy to end casual access, impulse buying, and the normalization of cigarettes as an everyday retail product.
Remaining legal access moves to verified adult-only delivery, pharmacy-linked cessation sales, or a public-health-controlled retail system. Requirements: government ID verification, adult signature at delivery, no unattended doorstep delivery, no auto-ship subscriptions, no discounts, no promotions, no loyalty rewards, and automatic quit-support information with every purchase.
A stronger offence for adults or businesses that knowingly, repeatedly, or for profit supply commercial tobacco to minors — covering organized resale, proxy-buying, delivery schemes aimed at youth, and repeat retail offenders. Not written so broadly that it criminalizes sacred or ceremonial tobacco, Indigenous traditions, or isolated situations where a health or social-service response is more appropriate.
First offence: major fine and mandatory compliance retraining. Second offence: temporary tobacco sales suspension. Third offence: long-term or permanent tobacco sales ban. Deliberate or organized youth trafficking: prosecution and loss of licence. The point is to make youth sales economically irrational, not symbolically punitive.
Convenience stores built their model around tobacco because governments allowed that dependency to exist. A national/provincial transition fund helps stores replace tobacco revenue with prepared food, parcel pickup, transit products, local groceries, coffee, culturally appropriate food, and neighbourhood essentials. Funded by tobacco manufacturer cost-recovery charges, excise allocations, retail licence fees, and public-health savings — not Vancouver taxpayers.
A serious anti-smoking policy helps addicted people quit, not shame them. The transition must include free or heavily subsidized nicotine replacement therapy, pharmacy-based quit support, counselling, low-income outreach, culturally appropriate supports, and Indigenous-led approaches that distinguish commercial tobacco addiction from sacred tobacco use.
Doorway and park smoking restrictions protect non-smokers from exposure. They should stay where they are useful. But they are defensive policies. The bigger public-health gain comes from reducing youth initiation, reducing retail exposure, reducing addiction, and helping smokers leave cigarettes behind. Stop pretending distance rules are enough.
A Mayor of Vancouver cannot change federal tobacco law. But a Scott Gilbert administration would use every tool City Hall has to push this agenda forward and protect Vancouver residents in the meantime.
Ask Vancouver City Council to pass a formal motion calling on BC and Canada to phase commercial cigarettes out of ordinary convenience-store retail
Create a Vancouver small-business transition pilot for stores that voluntarily go tobacco-free
Support tobacco-free neighbourhood retailer certification
Work with public health, pharmacies, and community organizations to expand quit support
Refuse to normalize cigarette sales in City-supported venues, leases, events, and procurement where legally possible
Track youth access complaints and retail compliance concerns and refer them to provincial/federal enforcement
Protect ceremonial tobacco and Indigenous-led commercial tobacco reduction approaches
"Stop chasing smokers six metres from doorways while cigarettes remain on every corner."
Canada should make cigarettes harder to start, easier to quit, and impossible to sell to minors — while helping small businesses survive the transition.
Health Canada — Canada's Tobacco Strategy
Target of less than 5% tobacco use by 2035.
Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (federal)
Regulates manufacture, sale, labelling, and promotion; includes provisions on furnishing, sending, and delivering tobacco products to young persons.
BC Tobacco and Vapour Products Control Act
Provisions on retail sales, underage sales, and sale restrictions at the provincial level.
Constitution Act — Division of Powers
Federal criminal law and trade/commerce powers; provincial licensing, property/civil rights, and local powers.
Health Canada — Tobacco/Vaping Regulatory Page
Explains federal regulatory framework and ongoing reform context.