Court documents show Rex was caught with “Rolled Gold Lights” and “PlayFare’s Light” cigarettes, both of which are popular brands in the illicit tobacco market. The amount of tax avoided by Rex after with the seized cigarettes was $47,200, all of which he must pay under the Excise Tax Act.
“Any loss of tax revenue is significant,” said B.C. United’s Morris, who was solicitor general from 2015 until 2017. “But when you start getting into the tens of millions of dollars, and from only one source of tax, government should be concerned because that’s a significant leakage.”Statistics from Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada suggest that while the number of smokers in B.C.
“It varies depending on how many trips we do, obviously,” he said. “If I do really good, I maybe make 10 grand” in a month. Rex noticed a significant improvement in the quality of the popular Rolled Gold brand about six years ago, and attributes the growth in sales to the product becoming higher in quality.Article contentWhile the contraband tobacco trade may seem relatively harmless, Crime Stoppers’ Leblanc says it provides financing for organized crime. Crime groups, he says, “generate revenue from the sale of contraband tobacco. That enables them to buy guns, buy drugs, get involved in human trafficking.
Akwesasne has long been known as a hub for smugglers of contraband tobacco and other illicit commodities, says Stephen Schneider, criminology professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Store owner George believes the introduction of the PST was a significant move that pushed his former customers towards the underground market.
“We will continue to look at further potential enforcement options for contraband tobacco and people’s health and safety will remain our biggest priority when considering any proposed provincial tax changes,” Conroy’s email said.On Jan. 7, Vernon RCMP seized 1.5 million contraband cigarettes during a regular traffic stop. But even while contraband tobacco is a concern for police, Vernon RCMP Const.
The rise of contraband tobacco threatens the existence of many convenience stores, according to Sara MacIntyre, vice-president of the Convenience Industry Council of Canada’s western division. For example, online customer “Rosalia P.” wrote, “Oh how I missed this flavour, I’m so happy to be smoking menthols again,” in reference to the menthol cigarettes sold on selectsmokes.co.It’s legal for tax-exempt cigarettes to be sold on a reserve to status card holders, though they still must be “stamped” as legal.Article content
Research done by Abacus Data for Imperial Tobacco estimates that 35 per cent of the tobacco market in B.C. is taken by contraband tobacco, up from 15 per cent a little over a year ago, said Gagnon. Indigenous people are more than twice as likely to smoke than the wider public, and renters are twice as likely to be smokers than homeowners, according to Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.