Mr. Speaker, I happen to have some research and data on that issue. I think we should maybe join up in Question Period. We could have a very similar process as I see across the way.
Smoking increase is the first in 30 years, and this actually came across the wire this morning from Toronto on CP. For the first time in 30 years tobacco use is on the rise in Ontario and women account for most of the new smokers.
Among those women age 18 and older smoking soared to 25 per cent this year from 19 per cent in 1993. These particular data suggest that the availability of cheaper cigarettes has halted the decline. In Canada that decline in smoking has been going on for 30 years and has perhaps reversed the trend. The fellow who conducted the research at the foundation said the greater increase for women is consistent with the fact that women's lower incomes make them more price sensitive than men and more likely to react to the tax cuts.
One of the tragedies in medicine is that women have overtaken men in terms of cigarette smoking, and cancer of the lungs in women has now overtaken the other horrible cancer in women, breast cancer, as one of the major causes of female death. Preventable illness-there is nothing in medicine more satisfying than preventing disease.
These data are the first data we have had made available to us. It has not been very long since these proposals have been on the books. Surely 30 years of decline in smoking with a sudden spike tells us something. This spike has nothing whatever to do with legal or illegal cigarettes. It is simply a spike, an indication. As we get more indications I think the government will backtrack on this bill. Why backtrack on it when we can prevent it right now?