For immediate release:
May 30, 2007

Corner stores confirm Barrett’s concern with illegal smokes
Minister Watson still ignoring dangerous underground tobacco trade: Barrett

Queen’s Park – In an open letter to Ontario’s Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson, the Ontario Convenience Stores Association (OCSA) accuses the Minister of turning a “blind eye to an ever growing illegal tobacco (contraband) problem.”

“Today the Minister told the Ontario Legislature that tobacco use has dropped 18 per cent,” said MPP Toby Barrett. “He knows that when you factor in the out of control illicit tobacco market, tobacco use has dropped a mere 2 per cent.”

Barrett continued, as did the letter by OSCA President Dave Bryans, to explain that as legal tobacco sales fall, illegal tobacco or contraband grows and it is becoming a huge economic and safety issue. The local MPP pointed to the recent incident at a Native smoke shop, on Highway 6 south of Caledonia, just a few weeks ago where a man was shot and wounded.

According to Bryans, research conducted recently points to almost one quarter of all tobacco sold in the province as being illegal. This illegal tobacco is primarily trafficked and sold by organized crime and the profit is often used to fund street drugs and buy weapons.

“The other side of this is that while many smokers are buying cigarettes from the trunks of cars they are robbing family-run corner stores of their business,” Barrett said. “In my travels I get the opportunity to speak with many of these families who fear the smoke-free legislation will bankrupt their store.”

OCSA’s data says that tobacco sales account for anywhere between 45 and 65 per cent of the typical convenience store’s total revenues.

Bryans questions, “Why then doesn’t the Health Promotion Minister take the growing illegal tobacco market seriously?” He goes on to say that despite the Minister’s boastings of an 18 per cent reduction in adult smoking since the beginning of the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, once the illegal tobacco purchases are factored out, the reality is there is actually only a two per cent drop.

“Perhaps now that I’m being joined by OCSA, retailers and health groups, the McGuinty government will come up with a plan to crack down on the illegal trade,” Barrett said. “I’ve been accused of playing politics with this issue – the numbers prove the case.”

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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at: (416) 325-8404,
(519) 428-0446, or 1-800-903-8629