Smoking rates in Alberta remain above the national average, particularly among youth, even though the province has spent millions of dollars trying to get people to quit, new figures released by Health Canada suggest.

Data from the 2007 Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey suggest the number of overall smokers in Alberta has remained steady around the 21 per cent range over the past three years. The national average has hovered around the 19 per cent range over that same time period.

But the number of young smokers in Alberta appears to have increased: 20.1 per cent of surveyed Albertans between the ages of 15 of 19 said they smoke. The national average for that age range is 15.2 per cent.

In 2006, Alberta's average for 15-to-19-year-olds was also 15.2 per cent, nearly matching the national average. However, the statistical confidence intervals for the 2006 and 2007 figures overlap, meaning the observed jump in the youth smoking rate could derive simply from a statistical anomaly.

"We are definitely concerned about the rate of smoking among young people aged 15 to 19. It should be much lower than the smoking rate of the general population, in my view, and it should not be the same rate as adult smoking," said Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, an Alberta anti-smoking organization.

Alberta has spent more than $50 million on anti-smoking programs since 2000.

The province also has one of the strongest tobacco control laws in Canada. The legislation, which took effect on Jan. 1, bans smoking in any public building, including restaurants and bars. It also bans the use of so-called tobacco power-walls in retail outlets in the province.

Hagen said the province's economic boom is making it easier for young people to afford cigarettes. He wants the Alberta government to hike the price of cigarettes by $2 a pack, a measure he said has the greatest effect on curbing smoking among youth.

"For some people, health information will not motivate them to quit, but perhaps a price increase will," Hagen said.

Alberta is not the only province where educational campaigns appear to be ineffective. The national overall smoking rate has hovered around 19 per cent for the past three years.

The Alberta government and the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission are both rethinking their anti-smoking strategies.

Raj Sherman, the parliamentary secretary to Alberta's health minister, defended the millions the province has spent on education campaigns but admitted the province could do more.

"Are we where we would like to be? No. Can we do better? Yes. Do we need to do better? Yes," he said.