EXCLUSIVE: Government Tobacco Inspections Already Up 84% This Year!
After relaxing tobacco retailers’ surveillance last year to focus on restaurants and terraces, tobacco inspectors from the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) have returned to their good habits, thus increasing the number of c-store, grocery and supermarket inspections with respect to the tobacco sale to minors.
Indeed, exclusive data obtained yesterday by DepQuébec from the MSSS under the Access to Information Act reveals that as of September 10, 2017, the number of inspections of retailers reached 3,656 for the first nine months of the year compares to only 1,986 inspections for the entire year in 2016.
In other words, there were 84% more inspections aimed at retailers than in the past year for the tobacco sale to minors (during which, we shall recall, an underage working for the government attempts to purchase tobacco to verify a store’s compliance).
But that’s not all: on the overall number of retailers inspected, only 284 were caught selling tobacco to minors, a spectacular compliance rate of 92.3% for all of Quebec.
To our knowledge, the compliance rate of Quebec retailers has never exceeded the 90% threshold. This is the first time. – DepQuébec
For example, the compliance rate in 2016 was 87.2%, 87% in 2015 and 89.2% in 2014. In the preceding years, it stayed around 85% in general.
From the earliest surveys of depanneurs in the 1990s to the present, this is the first time we have seen such high compliance with regards to the prevention of tobacco sales to minors.
In the case of a large chain of retailers, this rate is not uncommon, but for Quebec as a whole, including the independents, this really is a truly exceptional rate that reflects very well on the industry.
One of the reasons for such a performance could be the increased severity of the fines and the fear they arouse. However, it was the same situation last year and the rate remained at 87%.
The other reason for such high compliance could also be the industry’s increased efforts to self-regulate, notably through the Inspectobacco program launched 2 years ago by the Quebec Convenience Stores Association, which involves approximately 1,000 convenience stores.
This program allows participating c-stores to be inspected four times a year at low cost by a third party, with a very high objective to meet since they must, in order to succeed, require age verification for 25-year-olds or less. It is therefore an excellent training to improve their operations.
Certainly, as the government looks at alternatives to the distribution of cannabis and as Couche-Tard’s President comes out publicly to make the case of the industry’s ability to handle this product, the figures released today are certainly timely to support the claim made about the industry’s professionalism when it comes to keeping adult products out of reach of minors.
Congratulations to the owners, managers and employees of the retailers visited for this excellent performance: it sends a strong message that the industry has become highly responsible and above all, trustworthy.
