Tobacconists and the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017
A tobacconist is a business registered with the local Board of Health that primarily sells specialty tobacco products. If you want to register your business as a tobacconist with the Board of Health for a specific location, the following criteria must currently be met:
- A tobacconist must have specialty tobacco products account for at least 85 per cent of its total sales in the previous year. If the retailer has been in operation for less than a year, at least 85 per cent of the retailer's total inventory purchases or sales for that time period must relate to specialty tobacco products.
- The remaining sales or inventory (not to exceed more than 15 per cent) must be cigarettes or other items reasonably associated with a tobacco product or branded with the name of the tobacconist or a brand of tobacco. Items normally sold in convenience stores (including snacks, candy, and drinks) are not eligible to be sold at a tobacconist. Acceptable items can include branded clothing or accessories, branded water bottles or food items, branded coffee cups, carry cases such as tobacco tins. For more information and assistance in determining what items can and cannot be sold in a tobacconist, please contact the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit's SFOA Enforcement Program.
The following resources and legal notifications are made available to you, the retailer, to maintain an up-to-date Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017 (SFOA, 2017) retailer education binder for you and your staff.
Please ensure that the legal information and resources (linked below) are printed off and placed inside the retailer education binder. It is your responsibility to ensure that all retail staff who sell specialty tobacco products read the legal information and resources and then sign the sign-off sheet (linked below). If specialty tobacco products are sold to a person under the age of 19 or to anyone who appears under the age of 25, tobacco enforcement officers will review the retailer education binder to determine if the binder was signed. The business will be charged if the sign-off sheet has not been signed by the staff who sold specialty tobacco products to a minor.
