Ontario Fiddles as Tobacco Industry Burns

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 05/11/2009

Imperial Tobacco Canada resorted to unusually direct language yesterday when it called on the government of Ontario 'to step up and stamp out the out-of-control illegal tobacco industry rather than wasting time and taxpayers money on futile legislation'. In a statement before the Ontario Legislature's Standing Committee on Justice Policy, Donald McCarty, Imperial Tobacco Canada's vice president of law, said, "I can no longer come before a committee such as this and say that Imperial Tobacco Canada is Canada's leading tobacco company, at least not in Ontario. In Ontario the leading supplier of tobacco products are the illegal manufacturers who sell half of the tobacco purchased in the province." In a note posted on its website, Imperial said the Standing Committee on Justice Policy was hearing presentations on Bill 155, the Tobacco Damages and Heath Care Costs Recovery Act, which, if passed, would allow the government 'to stack the deck in a lawsuit it would be allowed to bring against tobacco manufacturers for healthcare costs allegedly associated with tobacco usage'. "This legislation will result in a victory for the illegal tobacco industry," said McCarty. "The vast majority of cases of this kind in the United States have ended in verdicts for the tobacco industry. If Ontario should fail in suing the tobacco manufacturers, taxpayers will have to foot the bill for years of legal wrangling with zero payout. "If Ontario wins, the loss is greater. There will be no pot of money, the industry will be bankrupt and the illegal manufacturers, with their sophisticated manufacturing capacity and distribution networks, will take over 100 per cent of the market within a matter of days, leaving Ontario with no tobacco tax revenues and useless tobacco control policies." Imperial said that Ontarians needed to know the province had the highest percentage of illegal tobacco sales in Canada. In 2008, almost 50 per cent of cigarettes bought in Ontario were illicit. 'The Ontario Auditor General reported late last year that in 2006-2007 the province missed out on $500 million in taxes specifically from illegal tobacco sales - no small sum in today's economic environment,' the note said. 'Imperial Tobacco Canada believes it could be as much as $1 billion today.' Enditem