Farmers to Give Natives Tobacco

Source from:  Mon, December 10, 2007 By MONTE SONNENBERG, SUN MEDIA 12/12/2007

Tobacco growers are expected to open a new front this morning in their ongoing battle to secure a quota buyout from Ottawa and Queen's Park. A plan was unveiled Friday in Langton to attack the $9 billion in taxes collected each year in Canada on tobacco products. Nearly 200 tobacco farmers and their families welcomed the plan with enthusiasm at the meeting. This morning at 10 a.m., a procession of pickup trucks is expected to leave the tobacco auction exchange in Delhi for Caledonia. The tobacco farmers will each turn over one bale of tobacco to native representatives "as a goodwill gesture." The convoy would be illegal. Special permits are required to transport tobacco from Delhi to Caledonia. It is also illegal to transact tobacco outside the auction exchange in Delhi. The assumption is the tobacco will be used to produce cigarettes on the reserve. Smokes from Six Nations sell for a fraction of regular cigarettes because native vendors don't collect taxes for the provincial or the federal governments. The strategy is the brainchild of John Van Daele of Courtland, president of the Oxford-Norfolk-Elgin Landowners Association. "The government is prepared to put us out of business, and they are," Van Daele said at the Langton Community Centre. "And they are winning. We're going to give them a taste of their own medicine." Van Daele called the meeting last week but kept his plan under wraps. Nearly all in attendance signalled they will participate in today's convoy. Van Daele explained that a 20- kilogram bale generates about $4,000 in revenue for federal and provincial coffers. He estimated that 200 bales given to manufacturers in Six Nations would erase nearly $1 million in tax revenue. Van Daele said tobacco farmers will keep shipping to Six Nations until Ottawa and Queen's Park agree to a fair buyout for tobacco farmers who want to leave the industry. Negotiations on a quota buyout have been underway for nearly two years. Tobacco board directors confirmed Friday that talk has moved to the replacement of the marketing board with a system of one-year contracts between the big cigarette companies and individual growers. Enditem