When I was in grade three, my teacher, Mrs. Skinner, showed our class two model sets of human lungs. The models were made out of transparent plastic, one designed to present a picture of a healthy set of lungs, the other to portray the black depths of a smoker's respiratory system.

The graphic and alarming message sent by these models was clear, immediate, and lasting - smoking is bad. I've never forgotten that lesson. Yet somehow the Government of Alberta has concluded that I need a friendly reminder.

Earlier this month Health Minister Halvar Jonson in an effort "to reduce smoking and the use of tobacco products" announced a whopping $1 million grant each year for the next three years for the . Who are these people, what do they do, and why do they need your tax dollars

Apparently, the , is made up of 56 member organizations (many of which are already government funded) who's raison d'être is to "provide leadership in coordinating and linking the resources and expertise of organizations and individuals throughout Alberta to achieve reductions in tobacco use." In other words, the is a Byzantine bureaucracy dedicated to telling Albertans what they already know - smoking is bad.

They will tell you that smoking is bad by spending your taxes on a website, a "Truth About Tobacco" handbook and "Youth and Workplace initiatives" (whatever that means). They will even have the audacity to take their publicly-funded campaign into your private living-room encouraging "Albertans to declare their homes smoke-free."

Now no one is saying that the government should avoid spending money on preventative health care measures. But where is the logic in spending $3 million to tell Albertans what they already know We are all well aware that smoking can result in lung cancer, emphysema, birth defects, etc. - it says so right on the cigarette packages. The province might as well spend that $3 million on telling us that the sky is blue or the grass is green. If you don't believe that everyone in Alberta over the age of ten is already familiar with the concept of smoking as harmful to one's health, conduct your own little survey. See if you can find even one person who will refute the proposition that smoking is a health risk.

The government's error lies not only in pretending that no one knows about the effects of smoking, but also in believing that information will change personal habits. Just because you tell someone something is bad for them, doesn't mean they'll change their ways. In fact, despite throwing millions and millions of dollars at anti-smoking groups, by the government's own admission "since 1990 there has been an increase in the number of Alberta teens who smoke." It seems the more we educate them the less likely they are to butt out.

Perhaps its time to re-evaluate our health care spending priorities and direct tax dollars to where they're truly needed. Front line workers like doctors and nurses should be able to find better uses for these millions than bureaucrats and lobbyists.