NOVA SCOTIA: The province of Nova Scotia is losing millions of dollars every year in tax revenue because of illegal cigarettes like those seized this week.
Service Nova Scotia announced Wednesday it had seized 870,000 contraband smokes following a seven-month investigation conducted with RCMP and Halifax Regional Police.
“This is certainly one of the larger seizures that we’ve made in the last three to four years,” Bernie Meagher, director of audit and enforcement for Service Nova Scotia said on Wednesday.
The tobacco, found during a search of three storage units on Tacoma Drive and Windmill Road in Dartmouth on Tuesday, has an estimated street value of $152,000, and the tax revenue lost totals $240,000.
Meagher said up to 10 per cent of tobacco in the province is illegal. That means the government is losing up to $10 million annually in tax revenue.
It also undermines the province’s tobacco control strategy, he said.
“Tobacco smuggling undermines that because it provides cheap tobacco to smokers and invites young people to start smoking because they can afford to buy that product,” he said.
Meagher said Nova Scotia has beefed up enforcement in an attempt to rein in the revenue and the loss of control, and he said they’re making progress: 10 years ago, one in three cigarettes was an illegal one.
Meagher attributes that drop to efforts in his department, commercials from Crime Stoppers and more collaboration with police.
Three men from the Halifax-area and one from Ontario are due in court in August to face charges in relation to Tuesday’s seizure.
