For Immediate Release
November 12, 2008

New tobacco legislation has no teeth: Barrett

Simcoe – Despite an entire section devoted to tobacco in the government’s budget bill, it seems there are no teeth to the legislation that has been written.

During Finance Committee meetings last Thursday on the Budget Measures Act, local MPP Toby Barrett and his colleague Tim Hudak explained to the committee that the provisions contained within the bill will not stop one illegal cigarette from entering the market.

“I consider this a very weak and tepid response to a massive societal problem,” Barrett told the Finance Committee. “Close to 50 per cent of the tobacco smoked in Ontario now is illegal. In my riding alone, I have at least five manufacturing operations. They do not pay any provincial tax.”

Both Barrett and Hudak reiterated that the intention of the legislation was to take a bite out of the underground market, however they are merely measures that strengthen existing provisions. The problem remains the existing provisions are not being enforced.

“The government is proposing to strengthen a law that it does not enforce,” Barrett continued. “It certainly does not enforce it in native communities, and that is a disservice to good people who live in native communities in this province.”

This activity, cited by Barrett, makes a mockery of the proposed legislation since contraband tobacco usage has grown from 24 to 49 per cent of the Ontario market in the past three years and can be found in the homes of every one in three smokers.

Both Barrett and Hudak spoke of the impact of illegal smokes on the province’s revenue.

“This is the Finance Committee, and we’ve had delegations in the past, and the estimate now is that Ontario is losing upwards of $400 million a year in tax revenue,” Barrett said. “That would have gone a long way to balancing the books, in light of the recently projected deficit.”

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