Big Tobacco legal settlement is worth $32.5 billion. How will Albertans be affected?

Alberta stands to receive a sizeable share of a $32.5-billion settlement to be paid out by tobacco giants.

The proposed agreement has been two decades in the making and follows five years of negotiations.

It includes $24 billion for provinces and territories, $4 billion for Quebec smokers and their heirs.

The agreement faces one last legal hurdle at a hearing scheduled for Superior Court in Ontario later this month .

The British Columbia government has said it will receive about $3.5 billion from the settlement.

Alberta is entitled to approximately 12 per cent of the $24.7-billion payout to provinces.

The province has not yet stated what it will do with the money.

Smokers are eligible for compensation if they fulfil three conditions laid out in the proposal.

Hagen described the settlement as “a money grab’s just a money grab because there are no restrictions placed on how this industry can operate, he said.

Hagen: “Tobacco companies are the poster child of corporate misbehaviour and yet this settlement includes no restrictions on the worst industry in this country.”.