Madam Speaker, in two minutes I will have to pick something out of my 10 minute speech. I want to thank my colleague from Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca for bringing this topic back to the House for debate.
I want to reiterate what one of my colleagues said previously in relation to the fact that the main issue to address is that we are dancing to someone else's tune. This is the Government of Canada. We make the laws here and because we have some difficulty in enforcing those laws it seems the best way to resolve that issue is to change the laws instead of going out and enforcing the issue.
I would also like to comment on the cost. We all know that if you cannot afford to participate or you cannot afford to buy something, then you do not. That is what the majority of people do. However, what we have done here is we have actually enabled more people to buy and consume cigarettes. It does not matter whether they are young, old or middle aged, the consumption of cigarettes will indeed go up.
We may not feel that effect today from the point of view of how it relates or translates into other services, but we certainly will reap its benefits shall we say from the point of view of taxing our health care services in the future. Here we are debating our social programs and their survival because of our debt and we are implementing an opportunity for people to go out and abuse their health which we will have to address at some time in the future.