Thank you, Chair.
Welcome to our guests. I regret not having enough time to get around to all of you.
I have a bit of a personal passion. I will discuss this very briefly--related in with Mr. Cunningham--as a former president of a local Canadian Cancer Society branch, and obviously I'm home to a riding where there is a multitude of smoke shops, and not too far from Akwesasne too. This might be information for my colleague across the floor too.
You have made reference to some of the dramatic changes and benefits we've received lately from some of the changes that have been made at the border. For my colleagues' information, this issue has been studied quite explicitly in this last while by Canada Border Services and the public safety committee. I am certainly looking forward to their report. Hopefully it's going to deal with even further suggestions to improve this matter, but of course a number of witnesses have come before that.
My concern right now is I'm really pleased for you to recognize that it's a complex issue. There are sensitivities involved, and there is no single solution. It's going to take a multiple of solutions on this, but certainly the stamping is a step in the right direction. You've acknowledged that, and I'm really pleased to see that.
What I am concerned about as well is that everybody thinks that it's just the baggies that are the problem. You touched on that a little bit. There's a huge trade, and you've intimated some of the penalties that were in place. A lot of our small businesses have the problem of illegal branded packaged cigarettes that are a huge problem too. I'm wondering if you could just put it in scale for us.