The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: The Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy is a commitment of the Government of Ontario to engage tobacco control stakeholders to reduce tobacco use in Canada's largest province. Legislative reforms will make public places and workplaces smoke-free effective May 31, 2006 and the government has committed $50 million (Canadian) per year to a comprehensive population-based strategy. The strategy includes enforcement efforts to achieve compliance with the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, mass media public education campaigns (known as the Smoke-Free Ontario Campaigns), public health program funding (e.g. youth action alliances, worksite interventions, innovations), grants to non-governmental organizations to support community-based activity (e.g. smokers' quit assistance, aggressive public education), and enhancement of provincial and regional infrastructure for planning, capacity building (through training and technical assistance), and evaluation and monitoring.

Methods: The Chief Medical Officer of Health is exercising leadership within government and also leads a committee of stakeholders to coordinate provincial planning and strategy development; including the establishment and integration of Tobacco Control Area Networks as a forum for information exchange, capacity building and the coordination of area-wide projects (e.g. quit campaigns). A network of non-governmental organizations coordinates program planning, capacity building, evaluation/monitoring activity with government. The strategic approach, coordinated delivery of technical assistance programming to building capacity at local and sub provincial levels, and the integrated evaluation and macro monitoring approach will be presented.

Results: The results of the first year will be presented, along with challenges of coordinating such a population-wide intervention and evaluation strategy. Lessons will be suggested for those considering similar interventions.