Tobacco tax rewind

A local anti-smoking group is urging the McGuinty government to reject a private member’s bill that calls for a reduction in tobacco taxes.

A Progressive Conservative MPP is proposing legislation that would cut taxes by nearly a third in an effort to combat contraband tobacco. The bill is being debated at Queen's Park Thursday.

Chair of Tobacco Free Thunder Bay, Jim Morris, said the province should instead boost surveillance for illegal cigarettes, and introduce a provincial anti-contraband strategy. The bill would see the price of legal cigarettes reduced in order to compete with the contraband products.

But Morris said the illegal smokes are still going to be cheaper. He said their biggest concern is more people would pick up the habit.

"The biggest concern over reducing the prices of cigarettes is that if cigarettes are cheaper, than more people use them or that people who use them smoke more," he said. "There’s a direct relationship between the price of cigarettes and the amount people use them."

Morris added that research shows when cigarette prices are increased by about 10-percent, about three-to-four per cent of smokers end up quitting. Click here to submit a letter to the editor.