The Windsor and Essex County Health Unit plans to get tougher on retailers who sell cigarettes to underage smokers.
Director of Health Protection Deb Bennett said store owners will be held to account, not just the clerk behind the counter.
Fine start around $300 and can range into the thousands of dollars for repeated convictions.
"We are going to become much more aggressive in our charges," said Bennett. "It used to be that we would deal with the employee who sold to the minor. Right now we have established the fact that if they are selling to minors we will be looking at charging not only the employee but the owner himself - so there will be two charges laid."
Ten tickets were issued last month to local retailers for selling tobacco to minors.
Bennett said that fact demonstrates the message still is not getting through. "Ten offences compared to other months is not significantly higher but the fact is we should be seeing zero. Ten offences is 10 too many."
Government figures suggest smoking remains the biggest preventable cause of death in Ontario, killing 13,000 people in the province annually and costing the health care system an estimated $1.6 billion each year.