Tobacco Growers on Brink of 'Starvation'

Source from:  tobaccofarmquarterly.com March 29, 2007 04/04/2007

Ontario's remaining tobacco growers, their families and their communities are feeling abandoned by the provincial and federal governments, according to a Canadian Press (CP) report quoting Fred Neukamm, chair of the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board. The growers believe that the [federal] government's war on tobacco has driven cigarette manufacturers out of Canada and prompted Imperial Tobacco to close two of its plants in Ontario. Neukamm said there were now about 1,000 tobacco families left in Ontario and all they wanted was some cash to exit the industry with dignity. However, the Board said that calls for a $1-billion exit strategy had gone unheeded in budgets brought down by the federal and Ontario governments last week and that growers were on the brink of starvation. The provincial government seems to be saying that one way or another this is a federal problem that should be paid for by applying even heavier taxes to tobacco products, while the federal government wants the Ontario government to start tackling the problem while it works on an 'appropriate package for the region'. Enditem