From: MetroNews.ca
KITCHENER — A burning issue may smoulder at Eastwood Collegiate — and elsewhere in Waterloo Region.
The Kitchener high school tops a new cigarette butt study by Ontario convenience store retailers when it comes to contraband tobacco.
Of 51 Ontario high schools to have their cigarette butts swept up and examined, Eastwood had the highest rate of illegal tobacco consumption at 40.6 per cent.
The butts were collected from outside smoking areas just off school property on one occasion between Oct. 4 and Nov. 10.
The study suggests cheap, illegal cigarettes are smoked at an alarming rate outside Eastwood.
Eastwood principal Jeff Klinck asked for and was provided a copy of the study by The Record. Klinck later said by email he has no comment because the school did not participate in the study.
“We continue to work with our partners at public health to support anti-smoking and smoking cessation messages and do not support students smoking cigarettes of any nature, in the interest of their health,” he noted.
“This isn’t a victimless crime,” said Dave Bryans, chief executive of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association. “This is the scourge of your community.”
Smoking is promoted through the sale of contraband tobacco, he says, and the government is out tax money.
Convenience stores lose sales and the ability to regulate the use of tobacco on behalf of the Ontario government through legal sales.
Bryans, representing 7,000 retailers, suspects the contraband may be brought in from a nearby First Nations Reserve — Six Nations is only 40 minutes away, he noted — or smuggled in from New York state.
“You can buy 200 cigarettes for as little as $10,” Bryans said.
That’s a “far cry” from the $60-$80 you might pay in a convenience store for the same amount of legal smokes with all the taxes included, Bryans said.
And the study — which includes a total of 136 targeted locations like high schools, hospitals, malls and civic centres — gets more disturbing for Waterloo Region as a whole.
Of the 23 regions included in the study, the region posted the highest contraband tobacco rate at 30.1 per cent.
Brantford, which is close to Six Nations, was second at 29.3 per cent.
The regional average was 21 per cent. Guelph was 18.3 per cent.
So why might Waterloo Region have topped this dubious study?
“Probably because of your proximity to the reserve,” said Bryans, noting the 35-40 minute drive to Six Nations.
“It’s not illegal on the reserve. It’s illegal when it leaves the reserve and is delivered to your community.”
The delivery model is pretty simple, he added. Just load a van and drive it there.
“This is a product that has no promotion, no advertising, no marketing, no billboards,” he said. “But, by word of mouth, everybody seems to know where to get it.”
Outside Grand River Hospital and Freeport Health Centre, the rate of contraband butts found in the study was also disturbing to Bryans. Grand River had 28.4 per cent. Freeport had 26.1 per cent. Windsor’s Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital hit 46.2 per cent.
“Is that the patients?” Bryans asked. “Is that the staff? Or is that the visitors?”
Outside Conestoga Mall in Waterloo, the contraband butt rate was 34.6 per cent.
Bryans believes the underground economy is healthy and the province needs to increase fines for those convicted of illegal tobacco offences and follow through on past promises to help eliminate the problem.
The Kitchener detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police says the worrisome local numbers in the new study are worth looking at.
“Obviously, it’s a concern to police as a whole, if the numbers are that high,” Cpl. Judy Falbo said. “This is the first time it’s been brought to our attention. So it’s certainly something we’ll have to look at.”
