Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to each of our panellists for being here this morning.
I have to say that when I first heard about the issue of contraband tobacco, given that I'm from a place like Mississauga, a very urban city and part of the greater Toronto area, at least 100 kilometres away from the nearest smoke shack, it didn't seem like an issue that impacted much on my community. But I had a meeting with some constituents of mine one day who came to see me and told me that they had gone to the area around the Erindale Secondary School in my riding, and had picked up hundreds of cigarette butts. They had done the analysis and showed that a huge percentage of them were actually contraband tobacco cigarettes.
Of course, we all are very concerned about young people getting started on tobacco and becoming addicted to nicotine and the health effects of that, and we spend a lot of time, as a government and as a society, trying to convince young people not to have that first cigarette, not to start down that path. I have lots of friends who, like Madam Boivin, have struggled with kicking the habit. It is so difficult once you have started, especially when you start young.
A couple of summers ago, I was in a convenience store in Mississauga and I just happened to notice a truck pull up with a number of young people who were working on some kind of landscaping crew. Some of them went into the sandwich shop next door, and one young man came into the convenience store. I didn't know the owner, and he didn't know me. I just happened to be in there as a shopper, and I noticed the young fellow, who could have been 15 or 17. He walked up to the counter and asked to buy some cigarettes. The convenience store owner, to his credit, asked him for identification, and the young fellow was obviously surprised that he was being asked for ID and made some excuse about how he didn't have his ID with him. To the credit of the convenience store owner, he didn't sell him the tobacco product.
I'm not saying it happens that way in every circumstance, but that is one line of defence against getting young people started. That's something that the vendors of contraband tobacco are not doing. They already know they're doing something illegal, so they're not asking young people if they are old enough to be taking that first smoke.
I have to say I was impressed by that.
I want to address my questions primarily to Mr. Don Cha and Mr. Grant about, first of all, the health impact of these illegal cigarettes on young people and the ease of accessibility.
Also, you said something, Mr. Don Cha, that I thought was very interesting. You talked about your store owner members being the kind of people who work hard and play by the rules. They see others doing something obviously illegal and not paying a penalty for that, and it diminishes your owners' faith in the justice system.
A lot of our justice legislation is trying to restore people's faith in the Canadian justice system. When we see people getting away with offences and not paying a penalty, not being brought to justice, how does that make your store owners feel?
Maybe I could start with you, and then we'll go to Mr. Grant.