Ontario Hansard

Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Ontario Hansard
April 25, 2006 No. 65B (evening)

Budget Measures Act, 2006

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant): The Minister of Health Promotion finally did get around to talking about tobacco. He actually talked about another act, Smoke-Free Ontario, but he didn't talk about this particular piece of legislation. If he would take a look at schedule O, the Tobacco Tax Act amendment, with respect to tobacco it makes reference to the manufacture, distribution, export/import, storage, sale and advertisement of tobacco. With respect to the manufacture of tobacco -- this may be out of his ballpark, though manufacturing is part of this bill -- Six Nations in Caledonia are in the business now, thanks to this government, of manufacturing cigarettes. Three billion cigarettes a year come out of Six Nations; they don't pay any Ontario taxes on three billion cigarettes. That is an awful lot of dollars thanks to the McGuinty government. Those tobacco dollars help finance the occupation at Six Nations in Caledonia, again thanks to the McGuinty government. That kind of tobacco money helps finance the lawlessness we're seeing at the occupation site at Six Nations in Caledonia. That kind of money also helps finance the blocking of railroads that was mentioned earlier this evening.

Also, under schedule O of this Budget Measures Act, the section on distribution: Who distributes tobacco within the underground economy? Guess who showed up at Six Nations Caledonia the other day? The Hell's Angels. Thanks to the McGuinty government, we have a series of smoke shops operated by organized crime; we have a connection, obviously, with the Hell's Angels, again thanks to the McGuinty government. As far as export/import, government policy now encourages the import of tobacco rather than using Ontario farmer home-grown product.