Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to the hon. member for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, who argued his case so eloquently. I must say that the question of restoring the tax on tobacco to the level that existed on January 1, 1994 is a difficult subject. I will consider two aspects of this question.
First of all, I would like to recall, as did the hon. member for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, the situation that existed when the tax was abolished. The hon. member for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca mentioned the fact that the price of a carton of cigarettes in Canada was up to $48, twenty dollars more than in the United States. The result was a brisk trade in contraband cigarettes. The hon. member for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell referred to the impact of cigarette smuggling in Eastern Ontario and the Montreal region.
However, its impact was also felt in regions assumed to be safe, including my own region, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, which is 300 kilometres from the U.S. border. We had never had a problem with cigarette smuggling.
During the last six months or year the tax was in effect, we started seeing contraband cigarettes in the region. At meetings I saw honest people take out packs of cigarettes marked with the insignia of the U.S. surgeon general, which meant they were contraband U.S. cigarettes. I saw this at meetings of normally law-abiding citizens who do not deal with smuggling rings of any kind.
These people took out their packs of cigarettes without a care in the world and thought nothing of it. It had reached the point where honest citizens did not realize they were breaking the law, because as I see it, that is what they were doing. There are taxes which are levied to provide services. At the time we had a situation where honest citizens felt they could break the law. It was a very bad situation.
In fact, a cigarette smuggler in my region was interviewed. Of course, it was all anonymous. You only saw his profile, and you could hardly recognize him. This guy boasted that he made one million dollars in eight months by hauling truck-load after truck-load of cigarettes into an area 300 kilometres from the border. The situation was truly disgraceful.
But even worse, while this cigarette smuggling network was spreading to my own riding, alcohol smuggling networks, clothes smuggling networks, even jewellery smuggling networks were sprouting. In other words, a number of products which, in the past, had never been smuggled, were becoming fair game for smugglers, and this, in an area like mine which is considered too far from the borders and where smuggling is rather unusual.
I think it was time that Canada took steps to curb this smuggling.
Of course my colleague from Glengarry-Prescott-Russell was instrumental in this, but you will recall that, for weeks, the Bloc Quebecois had been asking the government to roll back taxes on cigarettes because we believed that it was the only way to go. We had tried to bring this plague under control. My colleague described very accurately all the efforts which were made. We had reached the point where we were thinking of bringing in the army. When you find yourself in this kind of situation, you must realize that you have made a mistake, that taxes are too high, that it is too enticing, too tempting for everybody.
As was normal under these circumstances, we lowered taxes on tobacco. And in so doing, we removed much of the cancer that smuggling is.
At the same time, we perhaps avoided another cancer, the one that occurs when citizens start to think that they do not have to follow the rules and to abide by the tax laws. If one can stop paying taxes on tobacco and get away with it, why would one pay taxes on clothing, gas or anything else? Measures had to be taken, I think. And the measures that were taken were adequate.
Of course, this did not solve the tobacco problem. As my colleague for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca rightly said, this is a huge problem in our society. To me, tobacco is a hard drug. I have friends who have tried to quit smoking but without success.
It probably is as difficult as getting rid of other drugs that are illegal in Canada.
Nevertheless, we came to a point where we had to choose between two evils. I think that, under the circumstances, we temporarily chose the lesser of the two. It does not mean that taxes on cigarettes will be abolished forever. It does not mean that they will not be raised some time in the future-and I think that the Minister of Finance will keep an eye on the situation. I believe that taxes will be raised again, but they will be kept within reasonable limits so that the high price of cigarettes does not become, for some people, an illegal means of making a quick buck.
That does not prevent us, however, from paying particular attention to the growing problem of cigarette smoking.
Like the hon. member, I have also seen young men and women of 15, 16 or 17-I taught in high schools for years and I was stunned to see young 16-and 17-year olds develop a smoking habit. In spite of all the information campaigns and all the pressing requests made, these young people started or continued to smoke. Why? Is it simply a matter of being informed? Let us just say that I am less affirmative than the hon. member; I do not know what the solution is. I do not know exactly what to do to keep our young people from smoking.
I know the situation is very serious and the description made by the member was truly frightening. He may be right in a sense, but then should we prohibit cigarette smoking the same as cannabis, marijuana, cocaine and all these other drugs? I do not think this is possible in a society like ours. I think we will have to compromise; we will have to pursue our efforts to create an awareness and convince young people not to develop this habit. It is important to do so.
I regret to say that I will not support this motion. I believe it is motivated by good intentions. However, under the circumstances and given the situation that prevailed in recent years, it was necessary to greatly reduce taxes on tobacco.