Nova Scotia is getting a major settlement from tobacco companies.

The province says they will receive $809 million for the impact of smoking on the healthcare system.

All provinces and territories came together to sue for the healthcare costs related to tobacco use and a historic mediated settlement was approved by the Superior Court of Ontario, Thursday.

The process took five years.

The total value of the settlement was $32.5 billion with provinces getting $24.7 billion.

In the first year Nova Scotia will get $200 million to receive the rest over the next 15 to 20 years.

“The Government of Nova Scotia pursued this litigation to hold the tobacco industry accountable for the harms it has caused Nova Scotians and for the related healthcare costs”, says Premier Tim Houston in a release.

“Those wrongful practices resulted in extraordinary costs to our healthcare system, and we set out to recover those costs.”

This dates back to alleged practices by the tobacco companies dating back to the 1950’s and 1980’s.

The province says smoking is linked back to more than two dozen diseases and conditions. Most lung cancer is caused by smoking, but smoking can also cause other cancers.

“Tobacoo contains thousands of chemicals with hundreds being toxic and at least 70 known to cause cancer.”

Roughly 13.7 per cent of Nova Scotians smoke.