P.E.I. gets tougher on tobacco sales to youth

Retailers on P.E.I. caught repeatedly selling cigarettes to minors will now face more than just warnings, and at least one store recently was handed a licence suspension.The tougher rules came into effect at the start of the year. First offences still draw just a warning, but a second offence within a few months now has more serious consequences: a fine, a possible suspension of the licence to sell tobacco, and placement on a high-risk list. Being on the list means no more warnings, and stores need to stay clean for two years to get off it.

"We're hoping that it will have the desired effect," environmental health manager Joe Bradley told CBC News.

"Certainly a number of store owners are very diligent, and hopefully all will be a little more diligent in checking youth for IDs."

Mac's News in Summerside and a Sobey's tobacco shop in Charlottetown were the first establishments placed on the high-risk list. Kozy Korner Café in Charlottetown and MacDonald's Rite Stop in St. Peter's Bay were issued warnings on the March/April list.

Mac's News owner Tina Mundy has no quibbles with the tougher rules.

"They do have to do something. There are way too many kids underage that are smoking," said Mundy.

"I guess the thing they need to work on is, I don't think there's a law for kids to actually have it. It's we that get fined for selling it."

The province has no plans to start fining kids.

Mundy says that along with a $250 fine her licence to sell tobacco will be suspended for a week in June, and the lost sales will cost her a lot more than the fine.