FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 31, 2023
QUEEN’S PARK— On the (WHO) World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day, Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady urges the WHO to shift their focus and efforts from the growers of a legal product to the real pressing issue of the loss of food-producing agricultural land.
“The WHO’s heart is in the right place but in this instance, they can’t see the wood for the trees,” said Brady. “The WHO is essentially targeting fewer than 150 licensed Ontario tobacco growers who are growing a legal product. The WHO should be focussing on the fact that we are losing more than 319 food-producing acres every day to development and ill-conceived zoning. On top of this, there is a contraband tobacco industry that is spiralling out of control.”
Brady went on to say, there are bigger fish to fry such as the aforementioned development and contraband issues. Brady is also confused why less than 150 tobacco growers are the target when there is an opioid crisis raging across Ontario, Canada, and the globe.
When people are smoking contraband tobacco, there is little regulation on what they contain, and there’s also fact that the proceeds of this illegal industry are fuelling organized crime around the world.
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For more information, contact MPP Bobbi Ann Brady at [email protected] or
519-428-0446