Finance committee  In western Canada, there are no legal factories and no smoke shacks selling untaxed products to non-natives. The governments there just never allowed them to start; whereas in Ontario and Quebec, there is a longer tradition of them occurring so it's harder to then deal with it. B

Finance committee  What we can say is that it's $4.4 billion a year in direct health care costs because of smoking. We have to do some calculations to get a very specific answer. But it is enormous.

Finance committee  That's just in health care costs. If you include other costs, from fires and lost productivity, the number is much higher.

Finance committee  There's been a very good example in the province of Manitoba where first nation governments with agreements with the province have prices equal to that and it includes provincial tobacco tax. The full amount is included. The first nations get the revenue. There's no tax leakage.