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Illegal smoke sales flourish in Victoria Analysis of discarded cigarette butts by advocacy group reveals $120 million in lost tax revenue
Daniel Palmer News staff
Contraband cigarettes are flowing freely across Greater Victoria, according to a study that traced the origin of about 6,100 cigarette butts across B.C. The study, undertaken by Western Convenience Stores Association, found 15 to 22 per cent of cigarette butts collected at Victoria High school and Mount St. Mary Hospital in Fairfield were illegally produced or imported. “It’s the rock bottom pricing that’s so appealing to young people in particular,” said Andrew Klukas, association president. Contraband tobacco sales are as little as 10 per cent of the cost of legal purchases. Klukas said some sellers offer “baggies” of 200 cigarettes for as little as $10. Samples collected at Saanich Plaza found only a three per cent prevalence of contraband tobacco, the lowest in the region, and about 700 disposed cigarettes were collected across Greater Victoria at five sites. “We want a good cross-section of smokers: court houses, hospitals and schools because we’re concerned about kids having access to contraband tobacco,” Klukas said. The expectation was that contraband tobacco would be harder to obtain in B.C., as much of the U.S.-based or produced product is
originating from Ontario and Quebec. The Western Convenience Stores Association have conducted similar studies in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but this marks the first study of its kind in B.C., where provincewide contraband tobacco use is estimated to be as high as 17.4 per cent. “That’s $120 million a year in lost revenue for the B.C. government,” Klukas said. It’s also higher than both Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where contraband was 14 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. Klukas said illegal tobacco is also being imported from Asia, though it’s difficult to estimate how much. “Tobacco may be light but it’s bulky,” Klukas said. “The Achilles heel for organized crime that deals in this is the size of Canada. With the Asian tobacco, they’re so good at packaging it to look legitimate, we can hardly distinguish them from legal cigarettes.” In 2011, the RCMP seized nearly 600,000 cartons and unmarked bags of contraband cigarettes, 2,200 kilograms of raw leaf tobacco and 38,000 kilograms of fine cut tobacco. Seized amounts decreased between 44 and 67 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, the most recent statistics available from the RCMP. dpalmer@vicnews.com
OUR VIEW: Tax revenue up in smoke, Page A6
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Water problem Three-year-old Jada O’Dell, visiting her grandparents in Victoria from Cochrane, Alta, grimaces as water drips on her as she tries to fill her pail at the waterpark near Douglas Street in Beacon Hill Park. Don Denton News staff