Imperial Tobacco: rewiring the claims machine a year into the payout

Before a single claim was filed, Epiq Class Actions Services Canada, Inc. put numbers on what paying Canada's smokers would involve: an estimated 74,401 claims under the Pan-Canadian Claimants' Compensation Plan, another 69,970 under the Quebec plan, and projected costs of $91,941,719 before tax to run the machinery that receives, reviews and pays them, per Motion Record (Amended and Restated Claims Administrator Order), Aug. 28, 2026, Schedule B, Global Claims Administration Costs Framework, View 1. The notice campaign built to fill those queues was sized to match — at least 17,000 paid media spots and more than 880 million internet impressions over two years, designed to reach more than 90% of a target audience of people who smoked twelve pack-years between 1950 and 1998, per Motion Record (Amended and Restated Claims Administrator Order), Aug. 28, 2026, Schedule A, Global Notice Plan. The plan's own template release tells an eligible reader they "may qualify for $14,400-$100,000 from a landmark settlement."

Both documents are back in front of the court because, a year into the payout, the order that governs the machine is being rewritten. On August 28 — one day short of a year after the plans were implemented — Ernst & Young Inc., as monitor and CCAA plan administrator of Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, filed its Third Report and a motion record seeking an Amended and Restated Claims Administrator Order, returnable September 9 before Justice Kimmel, per Third Report of the CCAA Plan Administrator, Aug. 28, 2026, paras. 5–7. FTI Consulting Canada Inc. filed the parallel record the same day in Imperial Tobacco's proceeding, per Motion Record (Amended and Restated Claims Administrator Order), Aug. 28, 2026, Notice of Motion, para. 1; each of the three plan administrators seeks an identical order in its own proceeding, per Notice of Motion (Amended and Restated Claims Administrator Order), Aug. 28, 2026, para. 10.

The machine, as built

The plans these orders administer allocate $32.5 billion, in Canadian dollars: $24.725 billion to the provinces and territories, $4.119 billion to the Quebec class action plaintiffs (a $4.250 billion settlement amount less $131 million routed to the Cy-près Foundation), $2.521 billion to the Pan-Canadian Claimants, $1 billion to the Cy-près Fund, and smaller amounts to tobacco producers, the Knight class, miscellaneous claims and administration reserves, per Fourth A&R RBH Plan, Aug. 27, 2025, Art. 16, s. 16.1. Chief Justice Morawetz, sanctioning the plans on March 6, 2025, called the moment "a momentous achievement in Canadian restructuring history," and among the things the settlement resolves is a $13.7 billion judgment obtained by Quebec class counsel on behalf of smokers who suffered tobacco-related harms, per Sanction Motion Endorsement, Mar. 6, 2025, paras. 14, 17(c).

The individual-compensation side of that architecture — the $6.64 billion earmarked for people rather than governments — runs through Epiq. The sanction orders appointed it claims administrator for both compensation plans; the Original Claims Administrator Order of August 27, 2025 added a second appointment, as agent for the PCC Representative Counsel, per Third Report of the CCAA Plan Administrator, Aug. 28, 2026, paras. 4, 6. That original order was made by Chief Justice Morawetz on Epiq's own motion, supported by an affidavit of its own officer; the restated one is being sought by the monitors, on their reports, per Motion Record (Amended and Restated Claims Administrator Order), Aug. 28, 2026, Tab 4, Blackline, p. 1.

The two claims streams opened within days of implementation: the Quebec administration on August 29, 2025, the pan-Canadian on September 2. Their deadlines are a year apart — Quebec claims must be filed by August 31, 2026, pan-Canadian claims by September 3, 2027, per First Report of the CCAA Plan Administrator, Oct. 23, 2025, para. 12.

What the court file knows about the claims

The last claims tally filed with the court is ten months old. As of October 12, 2025, Epiq had received 156 pan-Canadian claims and 288 Quebec claims, none yet approved or rejected — figures reported before the mass-media campaign had begun, with newspaper advertisements scheduled to start that November 5, and accompanied by Epiq's advice that "a ramp up of this nature is normal in claims administrations of this kind," per First Report of the CCAA Plan Administrator, Oct. 23, 2025, para. 13. Neither of the plan administrator's two reports since has updated those numbers. The claim-level data exists — Epiq reports weekly to the plan administrators, the tobacco companies, the Court-Appointed Mediator, representative counsel and Quebec class counsel — but those reports flow to the stakeholders, not into the court file, per Third Report of the CCAA Plan Administrator, Aug. 28, 2026, paras. 20–21.

What the record does show is the machine being adjusted where it chafed. In June, the plan administrators reported that the requirement to have claim forms sworn before a commissioner of oaths or notary public was causing "significant delay, and uncertainty" for people trying to file, and asked that it be dropped while keeping the signed declaration that the claim is true, per Second Report of the CCAA Plan Administrator, June 9, 2026, paras. 13–16. Justice Kimmel granted the order in writing across all three files on June 19, and claims already submitted without the notarial signature were deemed not deficient for its absence, per Clarification Order (Claim Form), June 19, 2026, paras. 3–4.

Four amendments, and what leaves the public record

The Third Report frames the restated order as protecting stakeholders and improving efficiency, and its particulars sort into four changes, per Third Report of the CCAA Plan Administrator, Aug. 28, 2026, paras. 12, 27.