An anti-smoking group is calling on the province to work with First Nations leaders and communities to help clamp down on the sale of contraband tobacco, which accounts for one-third of all cigarettes smoked in Ontario.
"The low price of contraband makes cigarettes affordable, especially to young people. There is plenty of evidence that proves the demand for tobacco products falls by 3% to 4% for every 10% increase in price. Because contraband cigarettes are sold without all applicable taxes, they undermine government efforts to increase prices and reduce tobacco use through higher taxes," says the report by the tobacco strategy advisory group, which includes local medical officer of health Dr. Hazel Lynn.
In a 44-page report to the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, the government-appointed committee sets out a series of recommendations aimed at decreasing smoking rates in Ontario by 5% over five years.
Cigarettes smuggled into Canada via First Nations reserves that straddle the American-Canada border constitute the largest supply of contraband tobacco in Ontario, the report says.
RCMP Sgt. Michael Harvey, a member of a Cornwall-based tobacco smuggling task force, said up to 90% of illegal cigarettes sold in Canada are smuggled into the country through Akwesasne Territory, which has land in Ontario, Quebec and New York State.
Funded largely by organized crime, including motorcycle gangs and native organizations, the illegal tobacco is smuggled into Ontario by ship and car before being sold at "smoke shacks" on First Nations reserves and out of the trunks of cars, Harvey said.
He said smugglers "take advantage of the political sensitivity" surrounding enforcement on native reserves.
Cigarettes legally manufactured for sale on native reserves to natives, but sold, untaxed, to non-natives and off-reserve also account for a portion of contraband tobacco in Ontario, the report says.
The Sun Times contacted the federal Indian Affairs department, but a spokeswoman referred all questions regarding contraband tobacco to the RCMP.
The Sun Times also tried to contact Saugeen First Nation Chief Randall Kahgee to discuss enforcement in his community, but he did not return messages left at the band office or on his personal line.
The Sun Times also tried to reach Chippewas of Nawash Chief Ralph Akiwenzie at his community's band office and at his home, but he did not return phone calls.
The smoking control group is recommending the province:
• Engage in a dialogue with First Nations leaders and communities to achieve a "mutually satisfactory approach" to stop the sale of tax-exempt tobacco to ineligible people.
• Develop a strategy with First Nations leaders to address the production, distribution and sale of contraband tobacco.
• Empower police and tobacco control officers to enforce contraband laws.
• Require manufacturers to apply a tax-paid marking to every cigarette sold in Ontario, so enforcement officers can easily distinguish tax-paid, legally tax-exempt products from contraband.
Municipal police, the OPP and Ministry of Revenue officers have the power, under the provincial Tobacco Tax Act, to charge non-natives who possess untaxed cigarettes, Harvey said.
The RCMP and Canadian border guards can charge people for smuggling or possessing contraband tobacco products under the Federal Excise Act.
Harvey said RCMP officers have the power to charge people for possessing contraband cigarettes — not cigarettes legal for sale to natives — at First Nations "smoke shacks," but are "targeting" cross-border smugglers.
"The RCMP, right now, is focusing on a higher level of organized crime," he said.
Harvey said the RCMP is "well aware" of the political sensitivity of enforcing the law on reserves.
Attempts Friday afternoon to speak to an OPP media relations officer at the Bruce Peninsula or London detachments were unsuccessful.
Health unit inspectors have the power to fine vendors under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which bans the sale of tobacco to minors and merchants from advertising tobacco products.
Last year, health unit tobacco control program manager Linda Davies told The Sun Times that she has been told verbally by Ministry of Health Promotion staff and others not to enforce the law on native reserves.
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Murdoch has long criticized the province for not enforcing Smoke-Free Ontario Act legislation on First Nations reserves.
He said health units "should be enforcing the rules everywhere" and clamping down on the sale of tax-exempt tobacco to minors and inappropriate roadside advertising.
"On the native reserves, we let them sell to anybody," he said.
The tobacco strategy advisory group's report is now in the province's hands for review.
Lynn, medical officer of health at the Grey Bruce Health Unit, said the biggest problem in Grey-Bruce is contraband cigarettes sold to teens and youth from the trunks of cars.
A legal carton of premium-brand, taxed cigarettes retails for $80.16. A bag of 200 contraband smokes costs $20 to $24.
"We're trying not to go after the addicts. We're trying to go after the source," she said.
Contraband tobacco accounts for 30% to 40% of the cigarettes smoked in Ontario, according to the report and a study by the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco.
The coalition says contraband tobacco sold at First Nations "smoke shacks" is a big problem, which they claim to have revealed through undercover surveillance.
"These stores fail to comply with Ontario and federal government tobacco control laws and appear to do virtually no age testing to keep tobacco from children. These products increasingly are being improperly sold and taken off reserve sold as contraband," the coalition says in a statement.