Mr. Speaker, I do agree the timing of this bill could not be worse. Just to back this up I would like to read a very short piece from yesterday's Financial Post . The title is: ``The Sky is the Limit for Tobacco Tax in the U.S.''. The article lays out very briefly that in the U.S. some experts believe that tobacco taxes will increase substantially and they will be used to fund the new health care plan which is being talked about in the U.S.
I will read this very short article: "Canada may have learned a lesson about the dangers of overtaxing cigarettes, but it has not filtered through to the U.S.". No pun intended. "As Congress and the White House crank up the campaign for a national health care program, tobacco taxes have emerged as everyone's favourite way to pay for it. The only dispute is over how high to raise them. Sam Gibbons, who took over as chairman of the
House Ways and Means committee when Dan Rostenkowski was hit with 17 corruption counts, has proposed a 45 cent U.S. increase, raising the total price to $1.69 U.S. a pack. President Bill Clinton suggested 75 cents U.S. while Senator Edward Kennedy, who chairs the Senate Labour and Human Resources Committee, wants a $1.50 U.S. increase per pack of cigarettes".
There it is. At a time when we are reducing our price per package of cigarettes the Americans are talking about increasing the cost and the sky is the limit, as the article said. This article was in the Washington Notebook column by Kelly McParland. It is a very interesting little section and I encourage members to read it.