Mr. Speaker, I stand before you in a very grave fashion to speak on Bill C-32, the act to amend the Excise Tax Act, the Excise Act and the Income Tax Act.
This reduction in taxes to cigarettes is the single most disastrous act of sabotage to the health of the Canadian people which has ever been enacted by any government in the history of this country. This is not an understatement. Smoking kills at least 26,000 individuals per year.
The lowering of taxes committed thousands of youth in this country to smoke per year, ones who would not normally do that, and results in a dramatic increase in consumption.
I have some data that just came out from the Addiction Research Foundation. There was, as has been said before, a long term decline in tobacco use but this stopped in 1994. Smoking in Ontario increased in the few short months that the tobacco taxes have decreased from 22 per cent to 26 per cent.
Among women that increase is particularly dramatic. It has gone from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in the last four months. A 10 per cent decrease in cost results in a 14 per cent increase in consumption particularly among the youth and an 8 per cent increase in consumption among the rest of the adult population.
Some say that this decline in tobacco taxes has resulted in at least 800,000 new smokers in this country, of whom 175,000 are youth. These numbers translate on a personal basis to disasters that I cannot tell members enough about. They result in often fatal diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease and a myriad of other malignancies.
They result in lives lost and the untold pain and suffering by people who are afflicted by these diseases and also to the families and friends of the loved ones who unfortunately succumb to these diseases.
To put it in more impersonal terms, the decrease in tobacco consumption will cause a decrease in gross domestic product and increase in medical costs. Nobody has ever been able to show us the increase in costs that is going to result from the decline in tobacco taxes.
I can tell members from working as a health care professional that the cost to our system is in the billions of dollars. In 1982 the cost of tobacco consumption in this country was $7 billion, or $2 billion more than the total expenditures on tobacco including the taxes.
A decrease in consumption would decrease revenues from tobacco taxes, this is true, but it will greatly decrease the cost to the taxpayers of this country by decreasing health costs and also to avoid the loss in gross domestic product from job losses and a decrease in losses from fires caused by smoking.
The original idea to decrease tobacco taxes came as a response to the rampant tobacco smuggling that was occurring between Canada and the United States. I sympathize with the government completely on this issue.
This is occurring especially in central Canada, particularly in the three native reserves, the Kahnawake, Kanesatake and Akwesasne reserves that straddle the border. The decrease in tobacco taxes was also strongly supported and promoted by none other than the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association.
To give an idea of the scope of this problem, at the height of tobacco smuggling there were 35 cartons of cigarettes smuggled into the reserves per person per day, which is an incredible problem.
The natives claim-I do not have any disagreement with this whatsoever-that they have an inherent right to trade across their border. I would not dispute this at all, certainly for their own needs. However, when that trade involves the distribution of a commodity to the rest of Canada which by-passes the laws, results in smuggling and results in the death of Canadians all over this country, native and non-native, I have a big problem with that.
I have no sympathy at all for the people who are involved in it. I believe that this criminal conduct should be dealt with with the full force of the law as it must be dealt with in any part of this country. There has been a great reluctance to deal with this issue head on.
A fear of confrontation permeates the whole situation as much of this activity is with organized crime. Illegal weapons are rampant in the whole situation. I know that this is a dangerous situation but it is also an illegal one. Like it or not, as a cancer in our midst that needs to be eradicated on behalf of all law-abiding citizens in this country, native and non-native alike, we have to deal with this situation and deal with it now.
Now that we have defined the problem of rampant smuggling of tobacco products into Canada from the United States, let us look at some constructive solutions that would obviate the need to lower tobacco taxes.
I believe the first and foremost solution which has been proven to work is the export tax. I applaud the government in
instituting its export tax. In February 1992 the then government instituted a tobacco export tax of $8. In six weeks it reduced smuggling by 70 per cent. However, under pressure from the tobacco manufacturers, the government of the day caved in and removed it. I applaud this government again for instituting this tax.
I also applaud the investment in education but I would caution this government to spend its money wisely. It is not worthwhile investing money in 30 and 40-year olds who are addicted to tobacco to stop smoking. I would start at the ages of 6, 7 and 8, and please utilize your money carefully in that age group. It will pay off in spades in the long run.
Also, if you are going to institute education in teenagers, which must be done, do not tell them that they are going to get lung cancer 20 years down the road, do not show them a bunch of nerdy teenagers who look like they jumped out of a Rosedale high school playing basketball and turning into cigarettes. Tell them that it will affect their looks, address their vanity, address narcissism, address them on a personal basis. That is the way to address education in teenagers.
Getting back to the enforcement aspect, we must not accept a double standard of law enforcement in Canada, one for natives and one for non-natives. The problem of tobacco smuggling is one that extends far beyond the immediate problem of cigarettes but, as I said before, involves organized crime, the illegal smuggling of drugs, weapons and liquor. It is something that affects not only the reserves but also the rest of Canada. It is everybody's responsibility. Also, it does not serve the law-abiding citizens who live on the reserves. Nobody is addressing that problem at all, nobody is speaking out for them.
It is an affront to the citizens of this country and the people on the reserves this affects. We must provide our enforcement officers with the equipment and training to deal with this problem expeditiously, at any cost. Law is law, you either have it or you do not.
I would also ensure that we have an increase in the penalties for smuggling. Again, I applaud the government in its efforts toward this end. I also urge the judiciary to enforce these laws that have been brought in by the government to the fullest of its abilities.
As I said before, I strongly implore the government to bring the tobacco taxes back where they were prior to February 8. I instituted private member's motion 295 that has been selected, requesting that tobacco taxes be where they were and bring them back to pre-February 8, 1994 levels.
It is interesting to reflect right now on what is happening in the United States. It has instituted taxes and made changes to make it such that tobacco and cigarettes in Canada are now cheaper than in the United States, in Ontario and in Quebec.
I would ask everybody in this House to please reflect carefully on this bill. I ask them to look at their children and look at their grandchildren and think of the tens of thousands of children who are going to be subjected to starting up smoking and who are going to suffer the pain and death of them and their loved ones by taking up this horrible habit.
This bill is reprehensible and we have alternative solutions. We have alternative solutions to address the smuggling issue that are effective, and so there is no need whatsoever for this government to lower the taxes on tobacco.
Bring in these other issues, enforce them to the fullest ability and do not drop the tobacco taxes.