From: National Post
Chris Selley
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First Nations businesses can legally sell cigarettes tax-free to their residents — but in practice, all are welcome. From the finance minister’s perspective, that’s a huge revenue loss: a decade ago, more than one-quarter of Ontario smokers reported having bought cigarettes on reserve.
Uniquely in Canada, Southwestern Ontario farmers grow tobacco. Controls over where their crops end up are, shall we say, less than ironclad. So there’s a ready supply for producers, legitimate and otherwise, in the area. Further afield there’s the Akwesasne First Nation, which straddles the Canada-U.S. border near Cornwall. Large quantities of American tobacco find their way to the U.S. side, and then north across the St. Lawrence River, to be made into cigarettes and either sold on-site or distributed.
