Health committee  I have a couple of points in response. First of all, as I stated earlier, those terms have not been used on tobacco products in Canada for the last four or five years, so it's difficult for me to comment on that. Second, we acknowledge the fact that tobacco is addictive, in the

Health committee  We would probably disagree with Mr. Cunningham's characterization of active participation or contribution. We have contributed a submission as part of the general regulatory process; however, as we stated here in our position today, there have been a number of issues that have no

Health committee  I have a couple of comments. I'm not here to debate with the committee the efficacy or the effectiveness of the health warnings. I believe that probably the question of my credibility, which has already been raised by Mr. Cunningham, is lingering in your minds regarding that poi

Health committee  The terms you're referring to, “mild” and “light”, through an agreement with the Competition Bureau that Mr. Cunningham mentioned just a moment ago, have not been placed on tobacco products in Canada for the last four or five years, so this regulation is merely putting into law w

Health committee  Good afternoon, everyone. My name is John Clayton, and I'm vice-president of corporate and regulatory affairs at Imperial Tobacco Canada. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today to provide the following comments on the proposed tobacco product labelling regulations for ciga

Finance committee  I agree.

Finance committee  At present for the baggies coming off the first nations reserves, none of the regulations are being applied. It's very difficult for me to see how suddenly a new stamping put on all the legal products is going to have an impact on the contraband trade.

Finance committee  --outraged. Let's also point out that it's a letter from many years ago--

Finance committee  I was not working at the company at that time. For me to say--

Finance committee  Sir, Mr. Crawford's letter speaks from Mr. Crawford's point of view. I'm representing my company today.

Finance committee  I don't believe anyone went to jail as a result of the settlement.

Finance committee  I share your outrage at the state of contraband tobacco today. What is hard for me to understand is why government today fails to recognize that this is a problem and fails to propose a solution. We are happy to work with governments to try to address this problem, for precisely

Finance committee  Sir, I'm not--

Finance committee  Sir, there is no denial coming from me. I am not denying the settlement that we reached with the federal government. I'm not denying the activities that happened in the past when I was not at that company. What I am saying today is that the illegal market in this country is 33%,

Finance committee  That is a combination of all the provincial sales taxes, tobacco taxes, and federal excise taxes put together. I would be happy to have my finance department provide you with that. I'm not a finance expert myself.