Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak admits "it won't be easy," but says the province must work with the federal government and First Nation communities to crack down on the sale of contraband tobacco.
"If we don't take a stand and start, for example, ending this practice and closing down some of the illegal smoke shacks that are profiting from this grey area in the law, we're going to have a greater problem," he said in a recent interview with The Sun Times.
The sale of contraband tobacco hurts convenience stores — since illegal, untaxed cigarettes are much cheaper to buy — and leads to a higher incidence of youth smoking, he said.
There should be "one law for all," the Niagara Falls-area MPP said.
"I think at the end of the day, we all realize we can't continue on the path that we're on. It's going to fuel organized crime and get more young people taking up smoking."
Hudak stopped by The Sun Times newspaper for an interview Wednesday during a tour of the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound riding with Progressive Conservative candidate Bill Walker.
His visit came less than three months after a government-appointed tobacco strategy advisory group, which included local medical officer of health Dr. Hazel Lynn, presented a 44-page report to the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion with recommendations aimed at decreasing smoking rates in Ontario by 5% over five years.
One of the recommendations is for the province to 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.
"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," the report says.
First Nations people, registered under the Indian Act, are exempt from the Tobacco Tax Act, so long as sales and purchases of untaxed tobacco products are for their exclusive use and are made on a reserve.
However, groups such as the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco say vendors at so-called First Nations smoke shacks "appear to do virtually no age testing," as required by the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, to keep tobacco away from people under age 19.
The coalition says tax-free cigarettes "increasingly are being improperly sold" from smoke shacks to non-natives "and taken off reserve (and) sold as contraband." One out of every three cigarettes smoked in Ontario is now believed to be contraband.
The Grey Bruce Health Unit, which enforces the Smoke-Free Ontario Act in the area, has been instructed not to enforce the act on local First Nations communities, including the Saugeen and Chippewas of Nawash reserves, tobacco control program manager Linda Davies told The Sun Times late last year.
She said Ministry of Health Promotion staff told the Grey Bruce Health Unit that aboriginal governments have the right to make and enforce their own smoking-related bylaws.
An RCMP spokesman told The Sun Times in November that 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 currently focusing efforts on targeting cross-border smugglers.
A legal carton of premium-brand, taxed cigarettes retails for $80.16. A bag of 200 contraband smokes costs $20 to $24.