The Ontario government has been engaging a variety of industry, retail and public health stakeholders and Indigenous partners on the issue of unregulated tobacco. In addition, two independent Indigenous facilitators have submitted a report to the government summarizing their engagement with First Nations.
The facilitators’ work highlights the importance of the tobacco economy for First Nations, and the need to continue to work together on common interests such as economic development, smoking cessation, business regulation and community safety. The government remains committed to dialogue with First Nations on the report and its recommendations and welcomes discussions with interested communities.
The government will continue to work towards a balanced approach to addressing unregulated tobacco, including making further progress by:
- Reviewing and modernizing the Tobacco Tax Act based on recommendations from the consultations to ease administrative burden and strengthen provincial oversight;
- Continuing to enhance raw leaf tobacco oversight through adoption of “track and trace” technologies; and
- Expanding enforcement partnerships with interested provincial, local and First Nations police services.
