Preville on Politics

How Toronto will eventually tax cigarettes

Posted on July 27, 2007 by Philip Preville

Funny thing happened back when the city was still mulling over its many new revenue-taxing power-tools. One of the powers under consideration was a levy on cigarettes. Chatting with Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong in his office, he pointed out just how many small, independently-owned convenience stores there are in the city. Bazillions. Some crazy figure. Anyway, Minnan-Wong says to me, these entrepreneurs all depend on selling tobacco to earn their living. “What do I tell them if we tax cigarettes?” he asked. My response: “You tell them you’re going to let them sell beer and wine.” I was only half-joking, but the scenario may yet come true.

Earlier this year, Kim Craitor, a Liberal MPP from Niagara Falls, introduced a private members’ bill at Queen’s Park proposing that convenience stores be allowed to sell Ontario beer and VQA wines. It’s still winding its way through the legislative process. Last week, Toronto city councillor Michael Walker introduced a motion to have city hall voice its support for the bill. It’s been referred to executive committee. And if corner-store entrepreneurs were suddenly less dependent on selling cigarettes to make a living, you could tax their sale and not harm anyone except smokers, who are used to being open targets anyway.

I support the bill because I lived for many years in Montreal, where beer and wine are readily available around every corner, and where society has not crumbled to bits as a result. (I also lived in Alberta, where privatized liquor sales brought prices down while leaving the provincial government well in the black.) I also support the bill because the LCBO sticks in my craw. It ought to be called the LMBO, or Liquor Marketing Board of Ontario. It does precious little in the way of “Control.” It is profit driven and it makes money hand over fist, and there is no longer any moral imperative that drives us to keep the sale of alcohol under government control. Let the corner stores sell the stuff and reap some of the benefits of the world’s largest booze monopoly.

Comments

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Mark Dowling July 27, 2007 at 12:54 p.m.

Sorry, but as long as the LCBO lets me take back the bottle of vinegar someone gives me as a gift and exchange it for a decent bottle of BC Pinot Noir, I'm for keeping it.

Let them sell beer by all means though.

CUZCNIR4 September 2, 2007 at 5:59 p.m.

Hello. <a href="http://www.tCUZCNIR2.com"> CUZCNIR5 </a> [url=http://www.tCUZCNIR3.com] CUZCNIR6 [/url] Thanks


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Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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