Mr. Speaker, today is World No Tobacco Day.
While we must all delight at the passage of strong legislation to counteract the ill effects of smoking, we must be able to implement the laws we pass. On the weekend, Health Canada acknowledged that it was having difficulty ensuring compliance with its anti-smoking legislation, because of a lack of inspectors. In Quebec, one corner store in two complies with the law by refusing to sell cigarettes to minors.
At home, as in the rest of Canada, the job is not easy. While the federal government is currently carrying out consultations on the various options open to it on regulations concerning the promotion of tobacco products, it must ensure that the measures are realistic and that it can properly put them into effect. Otherwise, the legislator's efforts to reduce the ill effects of smoking will be for naught. They will be fruitless.