PJB wrote:
First Nations want more cigarettes, cancer society wants fewer
Last Updated: Monday, January 29, 2007 | 9:20 AM CT
CBC News
Some Saskatchewan First Nations leaders are talking to the province about allowing their members to buy more tax-free cigarettes — but anti-smoking groups are against the plan.
Residents of First Nations can buy up to three cartons of cigarettes a week each without paying provincial tobacco tax — as long as they buy their tobacco on the reserve.
Without the tax, they can get cigarettes for around $5 a pack — around half the price it would be if the provincial tax of $4.50 was added.
Morley Watson, vice-chief with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, said his organization has been talking to the government about raising the limit to five cartons a week.
It could be an economic boon to more than 100 confectionaries and gas stations on reserve property.
However, five cartons works out to about 1,000 cigarettes a person a week.
The Canadian Cancer Society notes that First Nations people are already three times as likely to smoke as non-First Nations people and wants to see the permitted maximums reduced, not raised.
Donna Pasiechnik, spokesperson for the cancer society in Saskatchewan, said even at three cartons per person, bands are getting more cigarettes than can be consumed by band members.
Steps should be taken to prevent the excess from being sold illegally, she said.
"We have been advocating for a monthly quota for tax-exempt purchases based on reserve population," she said.
Finance Minister Andrew Thomson said he's under pressure from both sides to change the maximum.
Striking a balance
He said three cartons a week is reasonable, striking a delicate balance between health concerns and aboriginal rights. A suggestion to reduce the maximum to two cartons a week wasn't well-received by First Nations, he said.
"While we all want to see a cessation of smoking and reduction of those numbers, this is an issue, we need to be mindful, is governed by the treaties," he said.
According to Pasiechnik, the most effective way to reduce smoking is to increase taxes, with the excess tax revenue being used to encourage people to butt out.
However, an on-reserve tobacco tax is considered unlikely unless there can be agreement by all 71 Saskatchewan First Nations.
Would someone please tell me how one person could possibly smoke 1000 cigarettes a week?! There is no other reason to increase the tax free amount other than to encourage illegal selling of these smokes.
Though I am against the smoking of cigarettes, I myself do smoke tobacco and flavored Arab tobacco. I think I flaw in the statistic pointing out Indians to be three times as likely to smoke is that it does not compensate for our culture involving smoking tobacco, and if cancer societies want us to quit that, well...
Though, like I said, I am against smoking cigarettes, and since Treaty Indian are immune to taxes, why does the government not put a minimum price to cigarettes? that way it also would affect Indians. We can buy our tobacco without such hassle, and so the Nations should have little to complain about.
Forum Super Elite 
