Score one for Big Tobacco in Toronto.[rssbreak]
In the same week that the feds officially banned tobacco advertising in newspapers and magazines (finally closing a donut-sized loophole), city staff have recommended that shops selling tobacco not be charged an extra licensing fee – despite a request from the Canadian Cancer Society.
Most Ontario cities already charge shops that sell smokeables an extra fee. The Society says it would give smaller shops a disincentive to sell tobacco.
But staff argued in their report to the Licensing and Standards Committee last week that “any new fees may be interpreted as indirectly imposing a sales tax on the sale of tobacco, which is specifically prohibited by the City Of Toronto Act.”
Smoke and mirrors?
Councillor Howard Moscoe, who chairs the Licensing Committee, is not buying staff’s advice. He doesn’t see why bureaucrats can’t employ what he calls “creative accounting” to get around the tax stipulation.
Between 2006 and 08, the public health department registered more than 670 tobacco-selling offences: 366 convictions for the sale of tobacco to minors and 320 convictions for selling tobacco without health warnings.
Twenty-?eight businesses were issued orders prohibiting the sale of tobacco outright.
The number of shops selling tobacco products continues to rise.
More than 646 new licences have been issued in 2009, bringing the total number of Toronto stores peddling the deadly weed to more than 3,900.
The cloud hanging over this story: the province has informed Toronto Public Health that it will no longer be picking up 100 per cent of costs associated with the enforcement of tobacco laws in the city.
The result: fewer routine checks of tobacco sellers and fewer inspectors.
