A historic deal that calls for three major tobacco companies to pay out billions in compensation to provinces and territories as well as former smokers across Canada has cleared its final legal hurdle in Ontario,

An Ontario court has approved a $32-billion settlement that will see three major tobacco companies compensate provinces, territories and ex-smokers.

(Reuters) -A Canadian court approved a plan to settle long-running tobacco lawsuits in the country as part of which the units of three Big Tobacco companies will pay C$32.5 billion ($22.67 billion), Philip Morris and British American Tobacco said on Friday.

Units of Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco will pay $22.7 billion to settle all smoking-related lawsuits in Canada.