Community moves towards tobacco regulation

11/20/2013

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) wishes to inform the community that consensus was reached to begin the process of moving towards the creation of tobacco regulations for Kahnawà:ke.

The decision was made by a large majority of the approximately 200 community members present at a Public Meeting on Tobacco held last night at the Knights of Columbus Hall.

An application will be sent to the Kahnawà:ke Legislative Coordinating Commission for potential legislation to be considered for the urgent law-making provisions of the Community Decision Making Process. The request, to be made by parties involved in the industry, will include the position that the potential legislation be created using the ‘Type I’ (laws of general application) process, instead of Type II (laws that are regulatory in nature) due to the community-wide scope of the issue.

“While the Tobacco Working Group is pleased that a clear decision was reached last night, we have to remind everyone that this is only the beginning,” said Chief Gina Deer, one of five chiefs on the file. “I can’t stress enough that the work will be hard and the hours will be long, but it was made clear that this is the route we need to take to support the industry and defend our jurisdiction.”  

A preliminary draft of potential regulations had been previously distributed to those within the industry and will be made available to any community member who requests them in the coming days.