Ontario Government Allocates Millions More Cigarettes to Reserves than can be Legally Smoked, Losing Millions in Tax Revenue

TORONTO, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released a new report today showing that the Ontario government is allocating 313 million cigarettes more to aboriginal reserves than can be legally sold or consumed by Status Indians. The report examines the Ontario government’s Cigarette Allocation System (CAS) for on-reserve “smoke shacks.” New data on the CAS has been obtained by the CTF from the Ontario Ministry of Finance through a freedom-of-information request (FOI). The CAS is a formula that dictates how much unmarked tobacco can be officially sold in reserve “smoke shacks,” tax-free to Status Indians. The CTF report calculated that every smoker over the age of 15, living on a reserve in Ontario, would have to smoke 61 cigarettes per day, every day, in order for Status Indians to have legally purchased every cigarette provided through the allocation system.