Manitoba, we need your help, now!

Once again, convenience stores are under attack and the target of poorly informed lawmakers. The Manitoba government has introduced a new bill with the stated goal of reducing youth access to vaping products. As responsible retailers we agree, kids should not vape. Full stop. Every convenience store owner in Manitoba agrees, which is why we check ID every day and send underage customers away empty-handed.

So why is Bill 54 coming after us? It pulls flavoured vapes out of city convenience stores and leaves them in specialty vape shops. Great headline. Wrong target.

Don’t take our word for it. Take Health Canada’s. Its inspectors checked 2,136 gas and convenience stores selling vapes. More than 99% were following the rules. At specialty vape shops, 43% failed.

Bill 54 takes the product away from the stores that passed and hands it to the ones that failed. If the goal is protecting kids, that is backwards.

As Canada’s national industry association, CICC has been actively engaged in trying to push back, get the facts to the government, even suggest changes to make the bill effective. But it is full steam ahead.

That’s why we need you, Manitoba residents, store owners, employees, distributors, suppliers, anyone and everyone in our channel to send a message to lawmakers: we are not the problem, we are responsible retailers.

How can you help? Click here and fill out the attached form. It takes 30 seconds—that’s all. Share the link with as many people as you can. 

First, it’s Manitoba. Where next? It will set a precedent, and it will hurt our industry and eliminate smoke-less options for those that want to quit. And most importantly it will push kids and adults to the illegal market or to shops that have a 43% failure rate in checking ID. 

Our 99% pass rate is earned every day in every store. Our members live in the neighbourhoods they serve, and they know what one sale to a minor would cost them: fines, their reputation, their livelihood. Checking ID is a daily routine.

Bill 54 also creates another urban-rural split, an uneven playing field and undermines the government’s own position. The flavour vape ban applies in big cities and skips rural stores. Same product. Same counter. Same ID check. Illegal in Winnipeg, legal down the highway. That makes absolutely no sense. Either a flavoured vape is a danger to teenagers or it isn’t. It can’t depend on the postal code.

So where do kids actually get vapes? Even the Manitoba Lung Association says they get them from friends and online sellers. Bill 54 does nothing to tackle illegal sites.

Adults lose too: Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says flavoured vapes help smokers quit cigarettes. We agree. But under Bill 54, a city smoker can still buy a pack of cigarettes conveniently, not the less harmful option that used to sit beside it. Some will go online. Some will just keep smoking.

And the illegal market is ready for them. Contraband sellers don’t check ID, pay taxes or care about nicotine limits. Shut the legal door and demand walks around the corner, to sellers who will never turn a 15-year-old away.

This bill is and example of good politics and bad policy. A ban lets a government check a box and say it took action. Whether it keeps a single vape out of a single kid’s hands is laughable.

There is a better way: work with the retailers who get it right. Our “ID PLEASE” program already trains the people behind the counter to check ID and say no. Manitoba should make that kind of training mandatory for anyone who sells nicotine. No certificate, no sale. Period.

Then get tough on rule-breakers. Sell to a minor, pay a real fine. Do it again, lose the right to sell. Go after illegal websites and contraband. And make the rules the same everywhere in Manitoba.

We want what the minister wants—fewer kids vaping. We’ll be at the table with real solutions.

As Bill 54 gets pushed through the Manitoba legislature, one question matters. Does it make it harder for a 15-year-old to get a flavoured vape? Or does it just punish the stores that follow the rules? 

Have your voice heard, click HERE right now and tell the Premier, Health and Justice Ministers that we are responsible retailers and change Bill 54 now.