Mr. Speaker, I have listened to the debate and to the hon. member's comments. I would like to make a short statement and ask him to respond to it. If reducing or eliminating smuggling is simply the job of passing laws and enforcing those laws, why was that not done to stop the smuggling of cigarettes?
I asked the hon. justice minister during a meeting with him if he would introduce stricter laws to prevent the smuggling of guns into the country and how he was making out with the cocaine and the drug problem. That is illegal in Canada as well. Yet we can buy it anywhere in any of the major cities across the country.
The smuggling problem is be eliminated by reducing taxes. The children in the schools will now have the money to buy cheaper cigarettes. We are creating an internal smuggling problem. There will be people supplying cigarettes to kids in the school yard.
I would like him to comment on the principle that underlies the whole area of smuggling and people seeking products that the law has prohibited.