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The Better Cigar Plan Due Date is Today – CONTACT YOUR MP
September 6, 2018
Your Favourite cigars will disappear AND WHAT that MEANS IN A NUTSHELL:
You can find all the relevant information on the www.BetterCigarPlan.ca website. It is paraphrased here for you. But the main point we wish to make crystal clear is this: Bill S5 will not only result in all your favourite cigars boasting plain green labels, the fact is that most brands may not or won’t be able to comply with the new legislation and as a result your favourite brands will DISAPPEAR FROM TOBACONNIST’S SHELVES FOREVER.
These brands will be gone. It is critical that you participate and network with us to get the word out to all your cigar loving friends and seek their help and support. Licensed professional tobacconists stand to lose up to 50% of their humidor facings from this new legislation. We must work together to get the exemption for premium tobacco to this new bill, if we are to protect a product that has no appeal whatsoever to children. This legislation will take away from the leisure enjoyment of responsible smokers. Specialty premium tobacco is in a class by itself, and should be exempt from this new legislation.
The Canadian Government has passed Bill S5 with damning legislation to the cigar industry that will put plain and standardized packaging into law for all tobacco products.
We propose that standardized packaging not apply to specialty tobacco products at this point, given their low rates of use, particularly by youth. Regulations for standardized packaging could be extended to specialty tobacco products in the future, if necessary. For example, if the tobacco market changes and young people become intensely attracted to this category.
Most hand-made cigars are crafted by women in the developing world. Canada’s plain packaging proposal will impact these workers and lead to job losses in their communities. If we exempt cigars from plain packaging and follow the UK model, we’ll then help women in Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, & the Dominican Republic. We’ll also help Canadian families, too!
The Better Plan
There is a better way to address the tobacco issues being regulated in Health Canada’s Regulations surrounding Bill S5: it’s the Better Cigar Plan. The Better Cigar Plan achieves the aims of Health Canada’s legislation while ensuring collateral damage is entirely avoided. Health Canada’s own research establishes that premium cigars do not appeal to youth.
The focus of our industry is Premium Cigars. Our industry is not the big tobacco cigarette companies. Our industry is comprised of small cigar shops that sell hand-made products made by women in the developing world. Health Canada acknowledges that if their plan is implemented as drafted, fully fifty percent of the available cigars in Canada will disappear from shelves. This will lead to job losses in Canada, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Mexico and The Dominican Republic; the latter are the five major producers of premium cigars.
More information can be found by visiting www.bettercigarplan.ca to see how you can take only a minute of your day to help your local tobacconists as well as all three hundred pairs of hands that make your cigar before it gets to you! YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY MAKE A DIFFERENCE SO PLEASE GET INVOLVED!
Get in touch with us for more information: