The federal government introduced a bill in the Senate that
gets tough on black-market tobacco.
It comes years after the leaders of the Ontario Flue-Cured
Tobacco Marketing Board pleaded for stricter enforcement because black-market
tobacco was undermining their supply management.
Supply management eventually collapsed.
During the final years of the struggle to survive, the
George Morris Centre issued a report arguing that the government failure to
enforce its laws undermined the marketing board, therefore the government ought
to buy out the farmers’ quotas.
The federal government eventually offered farmers a buyout,
but the Ontario government did not join in with the customary 40 per cent in shared
federal-provincial programs for farmers.
