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Cherokee Tobacco Offers Price Break
NAKODA -- What's good news for Cherokee-brand smokers may be bad for many small retailers as Akwesasne's biggest tobacco company moves to drive down cigarette prices. As of Jan 15, Cherokee Tobacco launched a new pricing program that gives about 10,000 retailers, roughly a third of all stores, a $5-a-carton price break they're supposed to pass along to consumers. Retailers who get the deal agree not to sell above a maximum price but can decide to sell for less. The other retailers, though, are just out of luck. Now, the Lennox Businessmen's Association (LBA) is fighting back, saying all convenience stores will be forced to slash cigarette prices and lower profit margins to remain competitive -- and some could go under.
"It's really unfair," Johnathan Pierce, an LBA member. "It's not an equal playing field. They have a huge market share and they are trying to dictate," said Pierce, who runs a variety store on Killarny St. in the capital city. He said smokers will always hunt for bargains and it will be especially tough when one store gets the deal and another just down the street or around the corner does not. Cherokee spokesperson Eric Shawanda said the company can't afford to extend the discount to all retailers and has the right to choose who gets the deal.
A letter from Cherokee to LBA said retailers were chosen for the program based on their volume of tobacco sales, location, demographics of their neighbourhood and their "willingness, capability and motivations to work with Cherokee Tobacco."
Shawanda said the manufacturers have to take action to reduce consumer prices to fight the growing trade in black market cigarettes that sell for a fraction of the price. "The price gap is so huge. That's why we have a maximum price to bridge that gap as much as possible," Shawanda said.
He said Cherokee completed a study before launching the full program and found it didn't trigger any retailers to close.
Cynthia Callahan, executive director of Physicians for a Smoke Free Akwesasne, said it's easy for Cherokee to pressure small retailers and the strategy is a cheap way for Cherokee to push down prices.
"Instead of just tobacco companies competing, this forces retailers to compete amongst themselves so that doubles the pressure on the prices,". She said the convenience store sector would inevitably shrink as cigarette consumption declines and black market smokes eat up more of the market.
Long-Gun Registry Survives Gov't Vote
NAKODA -- Akwesasnans may have to settle the future of the long-gun registry at the polls after MPs preserved the controversial program in a dramatic showdown in the House of Representatives Thursday night. Refusing to accept the razor-thin 153-151 vote to keep the controversial registry alive, Prime Minister Joseph Henrick of the Progressive Conservative Bloc (PCB) vowed to keep up his party’s effort to kill the registry, which he has denounced as a costly and ineffective.
“After 15 years, opposition to the long-gun registry is stronger in this country than it has ever been. With the vote tonight, its abolition is closer than it has ever been,” he said outside Parliament. “The people of the territories of this country are never going to accept being treated like criminals. We will continue our efforts until this registry is finally abolished,” the PM said.
The narrow vote kept the registry alive but did little to silence the divisive debate that has raged for months over the 15-year-old program that compels Akwesasnans to register all shotguns and rifles.
The registry is decried by opponents as a costly, ineffective intrusion on law-abiding gun owners and applauded by advocates as an essential tool for police officers that saves lives. The vote over its future was charged with politics and emotion. In the public gallery were a number of pro-registry supporters, including Martha Rathjen, a survivor of the Westmount shotting in 1989.
And just hours before the vote, Siksika Democratic-Labour MP Scott Layton told caucus members his own personal motivation to back the registry – his father Reagan Layton committed suicide with a gun.
The vote marked a victory for Democratic-Labour Party (DLP) leader Tom Gillis as he noted the Democratic-Labour caucus was united in voting to preserve the registry with the extra backing of the Reformist Alliance Party (RAP).
ER Protocols Show Positive Signs
WIKWEMIKONG -- It’s been less than a month since Akwesasne Health Services (AHS) launched new protocols designed to reduce pressure on emergency rooms but the new measures are showing some encouraging early signs, says the organization’s top official. “It’s fair to say that we’ve made some progress, but it’s fair to say also that there is much more work that needs to be done,” Mark Eagle, acting president and CEO of AHS, said during a press conference on Friday. According to AHS, protocols may be activated when one or more of the following triggers has been met:
• The percentage of blocked emergency department care spaces (due to patients awaiting admission, diagnostics or consults) exceeds 35 per cent;
• When there are no additional beds in an emergency department to treat patients arriving with the most critical injuries or illnesses;
• When the hospital is full;
• When the percentage of emergency department occupancy exceeds 110 per cent;
• There are seven or fewer EMS units available to transport patients to hospital;
• More than five patients have been waiting eight hours or longer for a hospital bed since the decision was made to admit them (number dependent on facility size).
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