By Christina Blizzard
There's a lot of smoke and mirrors in the way the government's Smoke-Free Ontario Act is being implemented.
On one hand, hard-working small business people are being asked to spend big bucks to comply with the new law outlawing so-called "power wall" displays of cigarette advertising.
Yet the government turns a blind eye to another group that sells illegal cigarettes, reportedly to underage children.
Thornhill Tory Peter Shurman has been hammering away at the government for weeks in question period, asking why convenience store owners, who work long hours, seven days a week, are expected to pay to hide the power walls, while native smoke shacks sell illegal cigarettes -- and no one bats an eye.
Not only are they not enforcing the age limit, Shurman said, illegal smokes caused a $600-million drop in tobacco revenues last year.
"On the one hand you have got this act that is meant to protect our kids and on the other hand there is non-enforcement.
"Kids are smoking because they are not carded at the smoke shacks," he said in a recent interview.
Shurman has a large Korean community in his riding, many involved in convenience store operations. They're hemorrhaging business to illegal smoke shacks and now they're expected to suck up the cost of the power wall barriers, which must be in place by May 31.
PC Leader Bob Runciman was back on the issue in question period yesterday. It should be a huge embarrassment to the government that a native smoke shack is operating on government-owned land in Caledonia.
"I know you are aware of an illegal smoke shop in Caledonia, operating on provincial land within metres of an elementary school. We've had reports of children on their bicycles leaving the shop with cartons of cigarettes on their handlebars," Runciman said as part of a question to Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best.
One of the weakest ministers in McGuinty's cabinet, Best sloughed the question off to stalwart Public Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci.
Even he had no direct answer.
"This government is committed to ensuring that tobacco cessation takes place in Ontario," he said, pointing to figures showing smoking is decreasing in Ontario. Well, smoking legal cigarettes is certainly down. Who knows how many people are smoking illegal smokes?
It is estimated 37% of all cigarettes in this province are not sold legally. The Ontario Convenience Store Association (OCSA) estimates that will rise to 50% by 2010 if left unaddressed. As well, the OCSA collected cigarette butts outside schools recently and found that 24% of all young people smoking in high schools were puffing illegal smokes.
"A person can now stand out front of a convenience store, be 17 years old and purchase a bag of cigarettes out of the trunk of a car for 10 times less than the average price of cigarettes in Ontario, and no one wants to take that on," Dave Bryans, president of the OCSA told me in a telephone interview yesterday.
'Out of control'
"This is a lawlessness that is growing out of control," he said.
"Why do we spend so much time in the legal market, where we are complying with every law -- from age verification to display bans? Why is the same group of people not taking on 37% of the illegal market that is now growing?" he asked.
Best was asked in a media scrum what she was doing to protect young people -- especially young aboriginal people -- from the harmful effect of cigarette smoke.
"We have programs that are aimed at every single Ontarian to reduce smoking and the young people all over Ontario. If they have access to the computer, they can access our stupid.ca (website), and for those who don't, we have education programs as well," she said. Best said smoking among young people has gone down and 72% of young people between Grade 7 and Grade 10 have never smoked.
Yep, but where is smoking most prevalent? On aboriginal reserves. Last year a study showed 61% of teen girls on reserves smoke, as do 47% of teen boys.
You'd think if the government really wanted to stop people smoking, they'd start in our First Nations communities.
And just how effective is a website, when you've got a shack outside the door selling illegal smokes to underage kids with impunity.
Now I know why they call that website "Stupid."