Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Dave Bryans. I'm the president of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association and a founding member of the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco.
I will speak first, and my colleague from the Customs and Immigration Union will speak next.
Our organization represents 14 business and civil society groups that came together to urge action by government to end the scourge of contraband tobacco. In addition to the CCSA, our membership includes the Canadian Chamber of Commerce; the Customs and Immigration Union, whom I'm pleased to be here with; the Canadian Taxpayers Federation; the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers' Marketing Board; the Frontier Duty Free Association; Toronto Crime Stoppers; the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council; the National Citizens Coalition; the CPQ in Quebec; the National Convenience Stores Distributors Association; la Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec; l'Association des marchands dépanneurs et épiciers; and the Retail Council of Canada.
The contraband tobacco problem in Canada is endemic in Ontario and Quebec. It is spreading in the Atlantic provinces and is slowly now reaching out to western Canada. In 2008, the last year for which we have reliable statistics, 48.6% of all cigarettes purchased in Ontario were contraband. In Quebec, the number is 40%, and in the Atlantic provinces it is 9.7%. Canada-wide, contraband tobacco averages 32.7% of cigarettes purchased, representing a 98% increase since 2006.
Contraband was found at every schoolyard examined in our butt study last summer, with some schools, such as Pickering High School, showing 41% illegal tobacco; St. Mary's in Woodstock, 34%; and Huron Heights in Newmarket, 50%.
Analysis of StatsCan data has shown that tobacco use among young people has plateaued in central Canada, likely due to the ready access to cheap, illegal cigarettes, which is undermining public health efforts.
The RCMP has told you and has told us that 90% of contraband tobacco available is illegally manufactured in the United States and then smuggled into Canada. We also know that the products entering Canada largely come across the St. Lawrence River, mostly between Kingston and Montreal. The epicentre is around Cornwall, Cornwall Island, and the Akwesasne Mohawk territory.
The RCMP has told us that over 100--today it was even more--organized crime groups are currently engaged in the contraband tobacco trade in Canada. We know that smugglers do not operate only in one direction and only with one product. We know that smugglers are moving drugs, arms, cash, and people over the border illegally when they move tobacco.
The sheer scale of the lawlessness is almost unimaginable today. If there is one thing members of the committee can take from our session here today, it is the location of the port of entry at Cornwall. It is imperative that the port of entry remain on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River, as it has made it much more difficult for the smugglers to transport contraband into Canada. Moving the port of entry back to Cornwall Island or onto the south bank of the St. Lawrence will return the situation to the one we had last spring, when contraband was flooding into Canada.
I look forward to your questions later on. I now turn it over to my colleague, Jean-Pierre Fortin, of the Customs and Immigration Union.