Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My comments will be brief. Other Members have said many of the things that I would have said to the issue. I will support the bill, Mr. Chairman. I have taken this under advisement. I have had sufficient support from the constituents, both smokers and non-smokers, to the matter. There were people who were expressing grave concern over what we were doing and how we were taxing smokers to death. I have expressed that and I have listened, but I have also listened to the other side of the issue as well.

I do believe that the cost of cigarettes is directly related to the amount that people smoke. It will also act as a deterrent if the price is too high to people who are beginning to smoke. I have seen a frightening increase in the consumption of tobacco, cigarettes particularly, by very young people. It is alarming to see this. I certainly hope that we maintain a price sufficient to deter anybody who wants to start this and perhaps reduce the hard-core smokers the amount that they will smoke. I speak from experience. About 27 years ago, I quit smoking when the price went up on a package of cigarettes by ten per cent. It went up from 50 cents to 55 cents. It was enough for me to quit.

I am comfortable enough with the allowable limits that can be imported into the territories without any tax on it. I think it is some six cartons of cigarettes or 12 packages of loose tobacco. I forget the number of cigars, but it is equivalent in weight. That, in my opinion, is quite sufficient.

I, too, have fears that this bill may not be enforceable. I think we heard, the other day, how one of our Members had called up the department to declare some imported tobacco and they certainly were not prepared to deal with it or hadn't heard or received any calls prior to this although this has been the case for the longest time, that you had to declare it. It was something that I didn't know, that you had to phone up the Department of Revenue and declare the amounts of cigarettes that you were bringing in and ask him how much and send them a cheque. I certainly hope that the department will take the Member's comments seriously and advertise properly and notify and publicize the where and how to do this task by ensuring that people are aware that they can bring in cheaper cigarettes from provinces, but they must declare them after they have brought in their total maximum of six cartons a year.

I also have the fears that Mr. Pudlat expressed about making criminals of our citizens. Again, when I raised that question with constituents, they said that the choice to smoke and smuggle is their's. They know the penalties. It is like anything else. There is a consequence to what they are doing, so that assuaged the fear that a bit of sympathy might go towards people who say, we are going to increase the numbers of crimes that are going to result from this bill. People will be tempted to bring in cigarettes. It is like anything else. If you are going to bootleg and you get caught, that is the price of doing business.

Mr. Chairman, I had fairly serious concerns about enforcement and how this was going to be carried out, given the fact that it is a self-declaring tax. I find it extremely hard to believe that if someone decides they're going to buy cigarettes somewhere else, that they will immediately phone in and report their purchase. However, I wish the Minister and his department the best of luck in collecting revenues from all tobacco products that are coming in. I find it a little hard to understand how people are going to do this voluntarily, given the nature of the beast that we're dealing with here.

You can see from the news in the previous months to what measures people have gone to smuggle cigarettes from the United States. They use very powerful boats and have ingenious ways of hiding products in vans. They use guns and things of that nature. It will be equally tough to stop it here. I want to congratulate the Minister and his department for standing up to this and I certainly hope the western provinces, as they have already declared, will stand together to make sure that they don't cave in, as have Quebec, Ontario and some of the maritime provinces, to the pressures of smugglers.

One thing I feel badly about is that the federal government gave in as quickly as they did to the smugglers instead of enforcing this a little more strictly. They could have broken the back of the smugglers by imposing a different kind of tax, a tax right at the manufacturers level so it didn't matter where they went, it would still be expensive to smuggle, regardless. That said, at least the western provinces have said that they are going to stand together and fight this. I wish them well on that. It would certainly be interesting to see what the results are in a years time. With that, Mr. Chairman, I will be standing behind the Minister to make sure this bill goes through. Thank you.