December 7, 2024
Hectoring words should haunt Ontario’s finance minister
A vehicle stop on Hwy. 401 in Napanee in January 2019 led to the seizure of 296 cases of illegal cigarettes packed into a U-Haul truck.
A vehicle stop on Hwy. 401 in Napanee in January 2019 led to the seizure of 296 cases of illegal cigarettes packed into a U-Haul truck.

Back in the spring, when Ontario Finance Minister Vic Fedeli tabled the Ford Nation’s first budget, a gambler would have likely bet the pinks to his car that the Progressive Conservatives would go after the millions in taxation lost every day to the province’s contraband tobacco profiteers.

The gambler, however, would have lost his car.

Back in the darks days of being in Opposition, Fedeli is on the record as finance critic castigating the Liberals for doing nothing to quell the growing contraband problem in Northern Ontario — particularly where, today, upwards of 75% of cigarettes smoked are illegally purchased at a First Nations reserve.

It’s the difference between paying upwards of $15 for a single pack at a convenience store, where 68% of the price is tax, or going to the nearest reserve where a carton of 10 packs can be bought for as little as $30, tax free.

Fedeli should know of what he speaks.

[…]

See Also:

(1) Hate Fest in Canada, Times Square

(2) #RingOfFire (#RoF) News – June 7, 2019

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