No group of convenience stores, especially the mom and pop variety, is more adversely affected by the flourishing cigarette smuggling business than those in Cornwall and district. They are at ground zero, literally a stone's throw from the action.
Legal cigarette sales have dropped dramatically since the revival of the smuggling business in wake of sharp tax increases. It means less traffic in and out of their stores. If customers aren't coming in to buy cigarettes, they aren't buying other items. One family operated store estimates sales have dropped 50%.
The theory is that the more expensive cigarettes become, the more smokers will be encouraged to give up smoking. It has had limited success. Especially in this part of the province where far cheaper illegal smokes are readily available ... to adults and teens.
Ironically, the health groups that advocate higher cigarette taxes and the smuggling cartels are on the same page. Higher taxes are good for the illegal cigarette business. It's a booming business that takes millions of dollars out of government coffers while supplying the criminal element with a lucrative financial pipeline.
Business is so good that in recent years several new cigarette factories have been opened on the U.S. side of Akwesasne. The majority of the product is brought across the St. Lawrence River between Valleyfield and Cornwall then shipped across the country. There are few regions in Canada where illegal cigarettes are not available.
The Canadian Convenience Stores Association thinks it has the solution. It wants federal and provincial governments to set a target of cutting the supply of illegal cigarettes reaching Canada by 90% this year. This, the association says, would make manufacturing illegal smokes unprofitable.
It is estimated that Canadian law enforcement agencies seize 10-15% of illegal cigarette shipments.
Obviously, asking the Cornwall Regional Task Force to take down 90% of the illegal smokes crossing the St. Lawrence River is not a realistic request.
This is far more complex than enforcing a seatbelt law or catching speeders on Highway 401.
The silver bullet for the task force is a change in public attitude; a day when "law abiding" citizens who buy illegal tobacco realize they are financing biker gangs and other criminal elements.
Law enforcement agencies can't do it by themselves.