If you've been vaping for a few years in Ontario now, you have probably experienced one or two fairly sizeable price hikes that came along with new Excise Duty Tax stamps on all vape products that contain e-liquid, including 0mg products. This means that you will find these tax stamps on prefilled pods, disposables, and bottles of e-liquid, while products like replacement coils, empty pods, and refillable kits are not affected. To a lot of Canadians, these stamps look fairly familiar, as similar ones are required on tobacco and cannabis products as well.
Background Information
Prior to 2022, there was no duty requirement on vaping products in Canada. In October 2022, the federal government introduced their excise tax, which was increased slightly in July 2024. At the same time as the increase, Ontario, Quebec, The Northwest Territories, and Nunavut entered a coordinated taxation agreement with the federal government, that effectively doubled the excise tax on vaping products for those provinces, because the cost of the provincial tax matched the federal tax.
As of January 1st, 2025, New Brusnwick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory have joined this taxation program, and as of today, January 30th, 2026, all grace periods to sell off federal stock have long passed, so all e-liquid products in these provinces are expected to have the correct provincial stamp, with steep fines and penalties for anyone still selling federal stamps. (Excise Tax Act, 2001, Memorandum D18-3-2: Excise Duty Framework for Vaping Produtcs, ISSN 2369-2391, June 25 2025, s. 1-4)
British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland have not joined the coordinated taxation agreement with the federal government as of today, but they do govern their own additional taxes on vaping products currently, and we are likely to see them added to the program in April 2026. We will keep an eye out for updates on this and add information here as needed.
(Source: Excise Stamps - Information for Consumers. November 2024, Canada Revenue Agency, https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/technical-information/excise-duty/excise-stamps-information-consumers.html)
How is the Excise Tax Calculated?
The cost of the excise tax is based on how many milliliters of e-liquid is in the product. In Ontario and other provinces with a coordinated tax agreement, the excise tax is calculated at $2.24 per 2ml for the first 10ml. The remaining e-liquid is calculated at $2.24 per 10ml of juice, and can be calculated as a fraction. As an example, a 3-pack of STLTH pods has 6ml, and since it's less than 10ml it will be calculated at $2.24 per 2ml, making the excise tax on the pack $6.72. For a 20ml disposable, the first 10ml are calculated the same way, with an additional $2.24 per 10ml after that. The first 10ml costs $11.20, the second 10ml costs $2.24, so the total cost of the excise tax on a 20ml device is $13.44. (EDN82 Calculation of Vaping Duty, November 2024, Canada Revenue Agency, https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/formspublications/publications/edn82/calculation-vaping-duty.html)
What does all of this mean for vape consumers in Ontario?
For a vaping product to be legally sold according to the Excise Act (2001) and the Customs Act (R.S.C.1985), it must have an excise stamp on it. Manufacturers and distributors must pay to apply excise stamps to each item they make available (Excise Act, 2001 S.C. 2002 c.22, s. 158.46-158.47). The cost of the stamp is then built into the pricing for the product, and therefore gets passed along to the stores and, in the end, to you, the customer.
Since the first 10ml are the most expensive, it is generally more economic to go for products with larger e-liquid capacities, like 20-30ml disposables, or 60ml bottles of e-juice. If you buy two 30ml bottles of juice, you would pay a total of 31.36 in excise tax. If you buy one 60ml bottle rather than two 30's, the cost of the excise tax is only $22.40.
Just to give an idea of how this looks when comparing actual product cost, we'll have a look at our Record Vapes 30ml salt nics and our SOS 60ml salt nics. We sell the 30ml bottles for $27.99. Buying two 30ml bottles would be $55.98+tax, meanwhile we have the 60ml bottles for $42.99+tax, leaving $12.99 in savings. Disposables are fairly similar. We have the STLTH Eco Box 10ml for $25.49, buying two would be $50.98+tax, meanwhile the next size up is the STLTH Eco XL 20ml for $35.99+tax, leaving $14.99 in savings.
Vaping is still a cheaper option than smoking for most people, but the implementation of the excise tax making vaping more expensive has closed that gap quite a bit. The best way to get the most for your money these days is to go for a refillable device with one of our SOS 60ml salt nics, or a pre-filled pod device, like the STLTH Loop Max or the Level X. While freebase e-liquid does come in larger bottles, it also generally uses more liquid than salt nic does due to vaping at higher temperatures and the larger cloud production, so it may not be the cheapest option for everybody, even if they are cheaper on a dollar-per-milliliter basis.