Mr. Speaker, I thank you and I thank my colleague from the Bloc Quebecois for his generosity.
It is a pleasure to speak to Bill C-47, an act respecting the taxation of spirits, wine and tobacco. I would like to draw the House's attention to a few bits of misinformation that we have heard in the House today from the government.
Back in 1994 the government was faced with a large problem of tobacco smuggling which was taking place primarily in Ontario and Quebec. At that time the government decided to lower the rate of taxation on cigarettes to address the smuggling issue. That created a huge problem.
Against the advice of the Department of Health and of stakeholders, the government lowered taxation rates which resulted in 225,000 Canadians taking up smoking, particularly teens in the young age group. We know that those people who take up cigarette smoking are primarily in their teenage years or even younger. It took the government some six years to change that mistake by bringing taxation rates up. Unfortunately every year 250,000 new Canadians took up smoking and this will have a devastating effect on all of us.
We know that the biggest thing we could do to decrease the chance of teenagers smoking is to keep the costs high. This is called price elasticity of demand. This means that as the price of cigarettes is increased, it creates a dramatic reduction in consumption, particularly among kids. This dramatic reduction is not only in the number of cigarettes they smoke, but also the age at which they start to smoke. In other words, the more costly it is, the older they are, the less they smoke. The cheaper it is, the younger they are, the more they smoke. Reducing the tax is probably the single most destructive act in public health care policy that we have seen in more than 30 years. We will pay the price in the future.
I compliment the government for increasing the tax rates and harmonizing them across the country. This will do much to decrease cigarette smuggling between the United States and Canada. Cigarettes were going from Canada to the United States and then resold back in Canada. People could make a profit because the price difference between the two countries was so dramatic.
This issue does not address the much larger issue of smuggling in general. Tobacco was just one of the products being sold at that time. We know that smuggling rings were organized crime rings working between the United States and Canada. Yes, they were buying and selling cigarettes but they were also buying and selling weapons, alcohol and drugs and involved in human smuggling.
A massive amount of smuggling is going on north and south, right under the noses of police who have been told not to interfere, in part because a lot of this takes place on aboriginal reserves crossing the boundaries of both countries. It is a serious jurisdictional problem. Many law-abiding aboriginal people living on these reserves are seriously harmed by this situation. The police are unable to intervene because they are understandably scared of an Oka-like crisis.
I ask the government to look at the larger issue of smuggling taking place in these areas. The government has control over the smuggling of tobacco, and it should be complimented for that. It is a good move on the part of the government, not only from a judicial perspective but also from a public health care perspective. For heaven's sake, the government must look at the larger issue of the smuggling of guns, drugs, alcohol and people.
The way to deal with that is not only to enforce the law, but to also implement what are called Rico-like amendments. The United States Rico amendments refer to racketeering, influence, corruption, organization charges. These laws enable law enforcement officers to go after organized crime gangs in a way they have not been able to before.
Good things happen when we can go after the financial struts and pillars that help support organized crime gangs. If the government wants to do one that is very effective, it should implement Rico-like amendments similar to those in the United States and at the same time ask other countries to implement them as well.
If we could do that on a transnational basis, then organized crime gangs would have a very difficult time doing their work that parasitizes so many in our country.
The second issue is alcohol. My province of British Columbia, as in many other provinces, has a large number of microbreweries and vintners, winemakers. Their biggest problem is the barriers that exist is exporting those wines east-west. It should be noted that the barriers east-west are greater than those north-south.
Vintners in my province can sell fairly easily to people in the United States. However it is very difficult for those individuals living in Ontario, Manitoba or Nova Scotia to buy British Columbian wines. A hodgepodge of rules, regulations and obstructions exist for the export of that wine east-west.
I would encourage the government to do something for a product that, in moderation, is good for the health of people, and that is the drinking of red wine and other wines. It would do wonders for the health of Canadians and also for those vintners who produce some of the finest wines in the world.
I would encourage the government to work and listen to the vintners and to remove those east-west barriers to trade. Canadians would then be able to purchase Canadian wines no matter where they lived. This would do much to support these products which are really a Canadian success story. I also suggest removing and lowering the tax rates not only for vintners, but for small businesses as well. My party has pushed for that for a long time.
My colleague from the Liberals mentioned that they wanted to do something for small businesses. If they truly want to do something, then they can lower the tax rates and remove the egregious rules and regulations that choke off the ability of small business to compete. They can also remove the export tax restrictions so they can compete fairly with other countries.
The other thing the government should do is flatten out the tax system and remove the corporate and personal tax structures.
My colleague across the way suggested that we pursue this through private members' business. As we know, 239 private members' bills have been put forth by members from all parties. Absolutely none of them reached committee stage. None from the government ranks have been made votable, which is terrible.
We need to do many things. If the hon. member from the other side truly thinks we should use private members' business to implement some of the fine solutions that have been put forth in the House, then we need to reform private members' business so that every member in the House, regardless of what party they represent, will have one votable private member's bill per parliament and one votable private member's motion.
If we could do that, and we can, then members of the House could have constructive discourse over important issues to Canadians and to our country. There are so few avenues where we can do that. We cannot do that by and large in the House or committees because these venues are primarily talk shops for areas of intellectual interest. They have no real effect on public policy.
I think all members know that there will be a round table on private members' business this week. Members from across party lines will come to it with good ideas. Collectively we can force the government to adopt those good suggestions. By doing that, private members' business would work for the betterment of everybody and ideas such as the ones put forth on this issue today could be employed. This affects all of us.
In closing, we support the bill. I compliment the government for equalizing taxation on tobacco across the country and for raising the tax levels which will do much to decrease smoking, particularly among children.
I would encourage the government not to back down when it hears pleas from the tobacco companies asking for lower taxes. Whatever the government does, it should not lower taxes on cigarettes. If it does, more children will pick up cigarette smoking at a younger age. It would be a devastating public health policy.