Mr. Speaker, I cannot help but begin my portion of the debate on Bill C-26 by commenting on developments within the Canadian Alliance ranks.
I did not believe we would ever see the day when members of the Canadian Alliance would be supporting a tax hike. However, here they are today. I guess stranger things have been happening over the last little while. It is wonderful to see the transformation of Canadian Alliance members. I say good for them for recognizing that the tax system is an important part of shaping good public policy.
I hope they are able to use the logic they have applied to this debate in seeing tax increases as playing an important part in creating responsible social behaviour. It is something that needs to be extended and looked at in a whole number of areas, including conservation of our natural resources, the reduction of poverty in our midst and the pursuit of social justice. That is the bottom line in terms of the taxation system and what is important for Canadians.
I am also tempted at the start of the debate, following developments earlier in the House today, to say hello to my mom. It is a wonderful opportunity to pay tribute to mothers across the land and to make the connection between mother's day and the debate we are having today on tobacco control.
Many times in our history mothers have led the fight to create safer communities to protect the health of our young people. They have been involved in stopping drinking and driving. They ensure that pregnant women take all the necessary precautionary steps. They are also trying to prevent young people from getting addicted to the deadly product of tobacco. Women have been doing an incredible service for the country in the pursuit of health and well-being for all our citizens.
Today we have an opportunity to talk about tobacco control and to acknowledge the work of the federal Liberal government in pursuing one part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the use of tobacco in society and to prevent addiction to cigarettes.
I acknowledge the importance of Bill C-26. It is a bill that would increase taxes on tobacco products. It would amend a number of acts which would result in an increase of $4 on a carton of cigarettes. That is an important development.
The members of the New Democratic Party certainly will support Bill C-26 at the final stage of approval by the House. However, I think it is incumbent upon us at this moment with this opportunity to look at what else the government could have done and to urge it to do more in this regard.
I was pleased to hear the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance suggest that this is a beginning, that there are more tax increases on the way and that the government recognizes there is room to move when it comes to increasing the price of cigarettes and still not be worried or pressured because of the threat of smuggling.
I think it is fair to say that the government is actually making up for lost time. It has perhaps, I hope, seen the error of its ways in that devastating decision in 1994 when it caved in to the tobacco lobby, rolled back the tax increase on cigarettes and actually contributed to the very serious problem of smoking among our young people today.
It has to be acknowledged what that kind of taxation policy does and what that kind of caving in to tobacco companies can do in terms of our collective pursuit of preventing the use of tobacco and stopping addiction to cigarettes among our young people.
I hope the Liberals recognize what they have done and I hope today's measure in the form of Bill C-26 is an acknowledgement of their past wrongdoings and a determination to right a wrong and to move forward, doing everything we can.
In 1994 we had an opportunity to keep the taxes high on cigarettes, to keep products out of the hands of young kids and to stop a lot of folks from getting addicted. I think we really did a great disservice to this country. Because of the threat of smuggling, we dropped the tax increase and actually caused more young people to get addicted to cigarettes. It is fair to remind the House that under the Liberal government, addiction to cigarettes among young people has actually increased.
It is important to refer to the government's own document put out by Health Canada, entitled “Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey” for February to December, 1999, which points out that smoking by teens aged 15 to 19 years, though down significantly from 43% in 1981, has increased 21% since 1990 but appears to have reached a plateau at around 28% since 1994.
In the Liberal era, smoking among young people and addiction to cigarettes has actually increased significantly. That has to be the direct result of caving in to the tobacco industry in 1994 around the tax increases and a result of a failure of the government to actually implement a fully comprehensive smoking cessation program.
The question for us today is this: is a $4 increase on the price of cigarettes enough? Could we do more? The answer is clear. Many groups have said there is all kinds of room to move. We know from some of the mapping done by those involved in this field that there is still a considerable gap between the price of cigarettes in Canadian provinces and the price of cigarettes in U.S. border states. The statistics suggest that we could raise cigarettes prices quite a bit more in order to be even closer to the price of cigarettes in the United States, so there is no need to be leery about the whole issue of smuggling in that context.
The comments of groups that have pointed out that we have overreacted to the threat of smuggling are legitimate. It is very important to remind ourselves that perhaps the government got caught up in something that did not necessarily have a basis in fact.
I point specifically to much work done by the Canadian Cancer Society and the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, which over and over have reminded the government that it has room to move in terms of increasing the price of cigarettes. In fact, they suggest that even if the Canadian government raised tobacco taxes by $10 per carton the price gap between Ontario-Quebec tobacco and the now much more expensive American cigarettes would only close by about 50%. They said that in a letter and documentation put together by those two organizations in March of this year.
The executive directors of those two organizations, Ken Kyle for the Canadian Cancer Society and Garfield Mahood for the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, stated:
—we believe the fear of smuggling in some quarters has been greatly exaggerated. If the United States can maintain high tobacco taxes without significant smuggling, so can Canada.
I put that on the record because I take in all seriousness the parliamentary secretary's comments about potential future increases and indicate to him that there certainly would be no opposition from us. I believe that he would have the support of many Canadians if his government chose to do that on an expeditious basis.
There is another question around this announcement and this bill. Is there enough money for and is Canada doing its part in tobacco prevention and cessation? The announcement that was tied to the tax hikes under Bill C-26 indicated that there would be an additional $480 million over five years for the tobacco control program in Canada. That is clearly still far below the levels that most groups active in this field have called for. It is certainly not much of an increase when we break it down in terms of what the government is spending today.
The government's own press release indicates that about $210 million over five years would be assigned directly for prevention of tobacco addiction and for tobacco control programs. That is about $42 million a year. That is hardly in line with what Canada is obligated to spend if we are to deal with the serious problem in our society today. I do not need to repeat the figures.
We heard from the Alliance and other members today about the 6 million smokers in Canada today, the 45,000 deaths per year, the fact that 250,000 young people annually become addicted to cigarettes, the fact that 90% of all smokers are addicted before the age of 18 and the fact that we spend $3.5 billion annually in terms of the health costs associated with smoking. All of those facts should be obvious to the government and should point this government clearly in the direction of an increased expenditure for smoking prevention and cessation programs.
That is precisely the essence and the purpose of Senator Kenny's bill, which has been through this House a couple of times and is on its way for the third time. Bill S-15 is due to arrive in the House very shortly. It follows on the heels of Bill S-20 which died on the order paper when the election was called. That followed Bill S-13 which was killed here in this place as a result of the government rising on a point of order and suggesting that it was out of the bounds of this place to pursue a money bill, a tax bill, that came from the Senate.
There is a question for all of us today. Given everything we have learned, given the work by groups on this bill, given the clear changes to Bill S-15 to make it compatible with the rules of this place, what will this government do in the next couple of days when the bill makes its way from the Senate to the House of Commons?
I hope that under no circumstances would the government try to put the kibosh that bill and suggest that it is not within the purview of this place to proceed with a bill that would actually raise the price of cigarettes on a much more significant basis than the government has been prepared to do to date and would ensure that the money is targeted specifically for smoking prevention and cessation programs. We are looking under that bill at a fund of approximately $360 million a year to be dedicated to smoking cessation and prevention among young people and others in our society.
If we compare that $360 million a year to the $210 billion that the government promises to dispense over five years, we can see the huge gap in the proposals and the clear need for Senator Kenny's bill. I would hope that when the bill enters this place we would all be united in support of the bill to ensure it is allowed for debate so that we can have a meaningful discussion about the values of a tobacco control initiative that increases the cost of tobacco by another $10 per carton and ensures that the money goes into a special fund to be administered by non-profit organizations.
That would bring us much more in line with other countries that are taking the issue seriously. It is important, for the record and for the government today, to be mindful of the fact that under the government and the way we administer our programs dealing with tobacco prevention, we spend about 66 cents per capita on this important endeavour. Many others have pointed out how that compares to other jurisdictions. For example, $32 per capita is spent by the state of Ohio and $16 per capita by Massachusetts and so on. All academic overviews of the issue and all analyses by experts on this serious problem in our society show that Canada should be spending more like $270 million to $720 million a year on dealing with a problem that is growing as we speak.
The facts that more young people are turning to cigarettes, that smoking at an early age leads to a lifelong addiction and that it very likely leads to ill health and even death should be enough to tell us to get on with the job and do something now. The old expression that a penny of prevention is worth a pound of cure suggests that if we invest a little bit now we will save a heck of a lot later on if we are serious about this problem.
Finally, as part of a comprehensive strategy dealing with the high rate of tobacco and cigarette smoking in society today, we must have an increase in the cost of cigarettes, as the government is doing in part today. We must have a clear focus on education and prevention, a model of which is provided by Senator Kenny's bill coming from the Senate this week.
We also must do more in terms of advertising and restricting tobacco companies' attempts to get through to our young people. It was just over a month ago that we raised in the House a totally destructive ad by du Maurier which ran in dailies across the country. It was a huge colour advertisement that basically suggested there was a free trip to the city of New York to be won if one was a smoker and over the age of 18. The ad said “Live it up in the city that never sleeps. Win one of two amazing New York experiences”. It went on to set out the terms and conditions for applying for that prize.
The government has done nothing. We have appealed to the government to look at the Tobacco Act and to realize that this is contrary to the law. We have called upon the Minister of Health to take action. I wrote to the Minister of Health on March 23 and asked him to please take action against du Maurier and do something about that deplorable ad. I have yet to hear from him. I am hoping that this is still under advisement and that the Minister of Health and the government are prepared to apply the full force of the law in regard to this ad by du Maurier, because it is contrary to the law. We have heard clearly from many groups about how it violates the law.
I am referring to the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac, which said, on March 27, “The tobacco industry is thumbing its nose at the government and its Tobacco Act”.
This was the reaction of the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac to the new du Maurier ads announcing a contest to win a five-day trip to New York.
That organization gave the Minister of Health some very specific articles in the tobacco act to pursue in terms of contravention. Specifically that organization and others have referred to articles 21 and 29 of the tobacco act. We hope the government will take action. If it is serious, as it indicated today, about controlling access to cigarettes by raising the price then surely it is prepared to take on tobacco companies when they break the law. Surely the government is prepared to show leadership by example.
Leadership by example would do more than anything to deal with this tragic epidemic in society. I am thinking specifically of the government's decision to include tobacco industry representatives on the trade mission to China in February.
It struck us and many Canadians as odd that the government would show such hypocrisy. On the one hand it pretends to be interested in controlling tobacco use and on the other hand it promotes tobacco in a country where there is already an epidemic of smokers. Some 800,000 Chinese people die every year because of tobacco addictions.
The government is involved in global efforts to control tobacco and we commend it for that. Given the fast flow of goods and services around the world, dealing with cigarette addiction and coming up with meaningful tobacco control programs must be done internationally. That is precisely where we would like to see the government show leadership.
We commend the government for being involved in what is clearly an important initiative, one that requires more time and effort by all of us. However it is hard to take seriously the government's efforts regarding international tobacco control when it is neither showing such leadership domestically nor leading by example in terms of ensuring we practise what we preach wherever we go.
We support Bill C-26. Increasing the price of cigarettes is an important and necessary step. However it falls far short of a comprehensive strategy that involves education, prevention, advertising restrictions and ever increasing prices on tobacco so that it is priced out of reach of our young people.
I thank the House for its attention and urge the government to follow these suggestions.