Bob Runciman says the illegal tobacco trade is costing Ontario taxpayers a half-billion dollars a year in lost revenue.
And the leader of the opposition at Queen's Park says the province should be getting as tough on those who sell illegal cigarettes - often openly - as it is on policing merchants who sell the legal variety.
"We should be enforcing the laws of the land," the longtime Leeds-Grenville Tory MPP said yesterday.
"There's this politically correct silence on behalf of anti-smoking groups that is ignoring this issue, and in any event, we've listened to this kind of hypocrisy for too long."
Runciman's figure of $500 million in lost revenue will be revealed in a report next week from the provincial auditor, and backing it up is third-party research that suggests that half of all cigarettes being smoked in Ontario are contraband.
They are manufactured in native tobacco factories, some in the Brantford area and some in Cornwall and in the United States, and sold on native reserves for as little as $8 a carton.
The smoke shacks do a thriving trade, as do bootleggers who buy them by the carton and sell them at a markup out of their homes, the trunks of the cars or duffle bags on the streets.
Runciman said vendors are becoming more blatant as police and health units are reluctant to take action against the native-run trade. The untaxed cigarettes are now being openly sold in stores far from reserves - and he says in some cases, even in shacks on Ontario government land.
He accused the government of turning a blind eye to the booming trade in illegal tobacco, even as sellers put legitimate merchants out of business and those selling the cigarettes on the street provide them to minors.
"In tough economic times, with families and communities suffering, food bank lineups growing, this government is looking the other way as illegal activities siphon off at least $500 million a year," he said.
He wants to see the existing laws governing tobacco enforced on those selling off-reserve and illegal smoke shacks shut down by provincial authorities.
At the same time, Runciman said he would be open to provincial discussions with native groups leading to self-taxation.
He said such a scheme has been implemented in British Columbia in which native groups levy taxes sold on tobacco sold on their reserves and split the proceeds with the government.
While natives are free to sell their own cigarettes within their own territories, exporting them off reserve is illegal.
Runciman is one of the few politicians to openly call for a crackdown on the illegal tobacco trade, although the nature of the business, involving both provincial, federal and municipal regulation, will probably require a co-ordinated response from the different levels of government involved.