Mr. Speaker, I want to thank members for giving me the opportunity today to talk about this legislation and its impact on my riding of Haldimand--Norfolk--Brant.
I come from a small rural riding in southwestern Ontario, located on the north shore of Lake Erie. My riding is unique because it represents about 80% of the tobacco growers in Canada. These are farmers with small tobacco farms averaging about 100 acres each.
The 1,200 or so tobacco farmers in my area, along with rural communities such as Delhi, Tillsonburg and throughout Norfolk and Brant counties, employ some 17,000 full time and part time people. High school students, university students and others from across the country come to work and help pick tobacco on these farms. The jobs help students get through high school, university and college thereby helping them further their education. These types of jobs also help our small communities, the local general stores and hardware stores thereby producing an economy for the area.
I mention that because the legislation sets out the ways governments will deal with tobacco, particularly with regard to taxation of tobacco.
When we first came in as government, we faced the tobacco smuggling situation which was taking place across the country. It seemed that tobacco smugglers were receiving more income than the Government of Canada, and in particular the province of Ontario because of its taxation measures. We took steps at that time to ensure the tobacco smuggling operations were stopped. We did that at the request of the tobacco industry and tobacco farmers.
I represent a riding which includes the six nations reserve, the largest native reserve in the country and Mississaugas of the New Credit. People told me they did not like what the smuggling operations were doing to the community. I took their representations forward as did a number of members. The government brought in legislation to deal with that, not only in terms of taxation by dropping the tax, but also at the criminal level. We ensured that more policing was available to look after that area. It was fairly successful in dealing with the problem of smuggling, and I know people talk about it today.
Now smugglers not only smuggle from the United States, they also smuggle goods from the islands to the south of us or from a number of different parts of the world. They bring in tobacco and cigarettes which almost match the cigarettes we have in Canada. Smuggling has been a challenge over the last number of years and smugglers have become a bit better at it.
This is not only a question of whether or not the taxation level is lower in Canada or the United States. We now have to look at the whole operation of smuggling to see what is happening. The Government of Canada has given its commitment to do that. I hope the resources from government will be there to ensure the smuggling is stopped
I bring up the whole question of taxation because it has a direct impact on what the farmers in my constituency have received for their product. High levels of taxation on tobacco products obviously encourage smokers to quit. If they do not quit, at least they cut down somewhat. As a result it has a direct impact on what the companies make and therefore on what farmers earn from the companies because the companies themselves do not decide one day that they will take this hit. They look at their costs. There have been challenges within the tobacco growing areas by companies asking for less tobacco and wanting to pay less money for the tobacco they do buy.
There have been other challenges in the area. Companies have told growers that they must change their kilns and the way they grow their tobacco to reduce a substance called nitrosamine. The farmers have taken up that challenge and have tried to work with government and the companies to ensure they produce a safer product. If it is recognized that there are substances in tobacco that need to be removed, the farmers themselves have collectively agreed to work on that because they recognize the nature of the industry and the nature of the product with which they deal.
Remember that governments in the past encouraged farmers to grow tobacco. Farmers came from countries around the world such as Hungary, Poland, Germany and Belgium, set up communities within the tobacco growing regions and produced a product. They are proud of the work they have done.
Members have said that they could do something else and that maybe they should get out of tobacco and try another product. It is not that easy. They have all their capital assets to consider. Also, it is not as easy to grow something else, particularly in the type of soil that is predominant throughout that area, which is a sandy soil. In fact they have tried in the past to adjust. They have tried to move forward into other types of crops. They have been somewhat successful in a number of them, but there are not a lot of alternatives to tobacco. If they go into another commodity, it is a challenge throughout the agricultural communities in the production of other crops to get a fair return for their labour and investment.
I wanted to point out these issues because governments increase taxes. Our taxes have not gone back to the levels they were in 1994 when we first dropped the taxes because of the concern about smuggling. I would encourage the Government of Canada to look at the whole issue of offshore smuggling, not just from the United States of America, but from other islands in the Atlantic and other areas from which they are shipping these products. That directly impacts what the farmers in my area receive.
I would also encourage the government to continue to work closely with the tobacco growers themselves. They understand the nature of the industry and want to co-operate. They want to work with government to move forward and ensure that rural communities such as mine in southwestern Ontario are protected and nurtured by government as they should be.
Tobacco is still a legal product to grow and smoke in this country. Farmers in my area are saying that if Canadians were to continue to smoke they should have the choice to grow a Canadian grown tobacco.