Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to that contribution from the hon. member for Calgary Centre.
He has taken quite an enlightened approach to this problem and pointed out a problem that every member has in the House which is that his or her constituents are split on the issue of taxation and the impact of taxation.
It should be reinforced that the only reason tax reduction was introduced was that simply to impose an export tax would only look after about half of the cigarette smuggling problem.
Close to half of the product that has been coming across the border as we all know now is counterfeit. It is manufactured in the United States and it has very nice looking Canadian packages and Canadian labelling. It is very difficult to tell it from the real thing.
That was obviously the reason why that tax reduction was introduced. One thing that we can do is convey to all the citizens of this country through our constituencies that there was a reason for it. It is not intended to knuckle under to the tobacco industry. As a matter of fact it will be reinstated as soon as this problem is brought to an end.
It is also important to put on record that Mr. Clinton in the United States with the introduction of his medicare bill has made it clear that tax will be added to American tobacco. That effort should help us a great deal. It behooves us all to encourage Mr. Clinton to bring that new tax in in the United States sooner rather than later.
This is where the member for Calgary Centre slipped. He had my attention until he said there is no law enforcement. He will find and we all will find very quickly that the law is being enforced and it is being enforced very well. The RCMP is doing its job.
Already we have a news report that in one area particularly smuggling has been reduced to a trickle. The smugglers are beginning to be put out of business. In the next few months we will be standing in this House applauding the RCMP for the very fine work it has been doing.