Some LLRIB Stores Violating Cigarette Display Law
Friday, August 05, 2005 at 15:08
An official with the Lac La Ronge Indian Band admits there are some stores on his band’s reserves that are not complying with the so-called “shower curtain” law concerning cigarette sales.
The law stipulates that retailers must hide displays of cigarettes from children.
Most outlets use a curtain to cover their cigarette displays.
However, reports surfaced this week that a number of stores on unidentified reserves were in violation of that statute.
LLRIB spokesman Kevin Roberts says most on-reserve outlets on his band’s reserves are in compliance, and those that aren’t have expressed interest in doing so.
Roberts says the only exceptions are individually-owned stores on reserves in La Ronge and Stanley Mission.
Some bands are claiming that the province has no jurisdiction on reserves on issues like this, but Roberts says it has always been his band’s position never to interfere with the operations of independently-owned businesses on-reserve.
Roberts also says, to his knowledge, the band has yet to receive any correspondence from enforcement officers with the provincial government.