native brands sales smoking at kahnawake
KAHNAWAKE, QUE.
-When you turn off the Mercier Bridge and come to these territories, it\'s hard not to pay attention to local brands.
Smokey, Brad\'s cigarette butts, McSmokes, and Redman\'s cigarette stores are marked everywhere, making it clear that cigarettes are plentiful, not to mention cheap.
Carton number 200
White and Brown names
Tip ciggies-packed in a clear plastic bag with a twist tie and a lighter-cost $6 anywhere in the old village, closer to the highway, customers can easily stop for shopping soon.
Anyone who likes to shine is very clear that these prices are unheard of elsewhere.
Heavy taxes mean that smokers now pay around $10 a pack for the brand, or $80 a box, while a pack of \"all natural\" local brand discounted cigarettes only cost one dollar.
Illegal tobacco trade is still a big business here, in an area full of tobacco houses, where they neither collect taxes nor pay taxes on land without taxes.
Just like the gambling problem, Ottawa is not in a hurry to fix it because no one wants a chaotic confrontation with the Mohawk. Low-
Pricing brands here and other reserves avoid the consumption tax paid by large manufacturers such as Imperial Tobacco.
In fact, a lobby group for a large tobacco company claimed that last year there was a ban on smoking cigarettes in Quebec, worth $1.
6 billion tax losses
Gary, a cigarette, complained: \"Once we make money from something, the Canadian government wants one --\"
Machine operator who does not want to be identified.
He produces about 20,000 cigarettes a day in one of several manufacturing plants in the reserve.
Many retailers are reluctant to talk.
A Toronto Star freelance photographer tried to take a photo of the Mike cigarette logo, and one of the shopkeepers ordered the removal of the store image on his digital camera and was told to leave the premises.
Community leaders believe that the restrictions imposed on them by the federal Indian Act have forced them to become creative in money --
Because they can\'t attract typical businesses like Wal-Mart, take risks.
Matt and Tim Houghton
\"We believe this is a legitimate industry,\" said the Mohawk committee of Mike Del Island, chief executive of kanawake Grand.
He pointed out that in so-
Cigarettes for contraband
\"Because of the legislation we have not made, we are forced to pass
Traditional means.
We just want to create a good economic environment for our community.
\"Liberal MP Roy Cullen, who wants to see regulation of the game here, says the issue of contraband tobacco will be debated in full next month --
The Standing Committee of the party on public safety and national security.
\"When we raise the consumption tax, we want young people to resign.
\"The tobacco trade goes against our health goals and gets money from the federal Treasury,\" Karen said . \".