Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank our two witnesses.
My questions are mainly for Mr. Couture, who is representing the Ontario Provincial Police.
The headline in today's Le Droit was “Illegal Cigarette Butts by the Ton”. Mr. Bryans, a representative for the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, provides a fairly negative overview of the work being done to counter contraband in Ontario. I'll read you some passages from this article by Guillaume St-Pierre. He mentions some statistics, and I'm wondering if they are similar to yours:
A study shows that contraband cigarette use is “out of control” at the Rideau Carleton Raceway. The Ottawa gaming facility topped the ranking of 136 public places across Ontario where cigarette butts were analyzed. Exactly 46.6% of cigarette butts found near the doors of the race track were identified as coming from illegal cigarettes, according to a report commissioned by the convenience store lobby.
The article shows the link between gambling and contraband cigarettes. I'll continue:
In total, Mr. Bryans estimates that 20% of cigarettes smoked in Ontario were sold illegally.
In comparison, we are doing okay:
In Ottawa, 13.4% of the 2,000 cigarette butts analyzed were found to be illegal, placing the region at 21 out of 23, far behind Kitchener (28.9%), Barrie (28.5%), Brantford (28.4%) and Windsor (28%).Hospitals and schools were also targeted....Mr. Bryans estimates that inaction on the part of the authorities is depriving the governments of at least $500 million in revenue....Mr. Bryans estimates that there are 50 cigarette manufacturing plants on first nations reserves in these two Canadian provinces.
Does that somewhat match what you have seen?