Queen’s Park – Local MPP Toby Barrett called on the Ontario government to do their part in cracking down on illegal smoke shacks and tobacco that is fuelling criminal activities across the province.
Barrett had an opportunity to respond to his Party’s motion concerning illegal smoke shacks in the Ontario Legislature today. (The motion is inserted following the release)
“There is an unintended partnership of government policy and the underground economy that has put Canadian tobacco farmers and the legal tobacco trade at a competitive disadvantage,” Barrett told the Legislature. “The situation reminds me of Samuel Johnson’s quote: the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and nowhere is this more prevalent than in my own riding of Haldimand-Norfolk.”
Barrett then went on to talk about Doug Fleming of Caledonia who attended the Queen’s Park media studio last December to talk about smoke shacks in his hometown. Mr. Fleming had grown tired of watching minors carry bags of cigarettes to and from town on the handlebars of their bicycles and set out to put an end to it. Eventually, in attempt to draw attention to the matter, Mr. Fleming set up his own smoke shack in town, and when he suggested to the OPP that he was breaking the law and should be arrested, the OPP refused.
While in the media studio Mr. Fleming said: “I had turned to a life of crime in an attempt to have the law enforced, but it wasn’t working.” In conclusion, Mr. Fleming had said, “If Premier McGuinty wants to create a smoke-free Ontario, it seems to me that he’s not doing a very good job.”
As he has in the past, MPP Barrett said that the government can put an end to illegal tobacco and smoke shacks by increasing enforcement and reducing tobacco taxes.
“I used to work for the Addiction Research Foundation, and there were many, many smoke shops locally in the mid-1990s,” Barrett said. “Taxes were reduced in both Ontario and Quebec, and overnight in Six Nations alone, 300 smoke shops disappeared.”
Despite tobacco tax revenue being at an all-time high, sales of counterfeit, contraband and illicit products mean that the federal and provincial governments are losing $1.6 billion in additional taxes each year.
Other members of the PC caucus took aim at the government, suggesting that they are not acting or protecting the health and well-being of all Ontarians by allowing illegal smoke shacks to operate.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant told the Ontario Legislature that he did not understand why one smoke shack was receiving so much attention in the Ontario Legislature.
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