Four Winds looks to set up cigarette plant in southern Alberta

EDMONTON – A company registered on a Mohawk reserve in Quebec says it is looking at setting up a cigarette manufacturing plant in southern Alberta.

Representatives of Four Winds Tobacco Products appeared before Newell County council last month about a possible location in Brooks.

Tom O’Connell, a company consultant, says Four Winds wants to produce cigarettes for export and to wholesalers in Ontario.

There is no immediate plan to sell in Alberta, but he says Four Winds may eventually try to market cigarettes on First Nation in Western Canada.

He says the company is looking at Alberta because Quebec has put a moratorium on new tobacco manufacturing.

O’Connell says if the company gets county approval it will apply for federal and provincial permits.

Her says the tobacco for the plant would be imported from the U.S. initially, but the company would then seek Canadian suppliers.

Four Winds is listed as a registered corporation with Industry Canada.

It has an office and directors in Kahnawake, just south of Montreal.

Earlier this year, the president of a tobacco company from Kahnawake was found not guilty of importing millions of cigarettes without a licence for resale to a central Alberta reserve.

Robbie Dickson of Rainbow Tobacco was convicted of two other charges under Alberta’s Tobacco Tax Act.

O’Connell says Four Winds is not affiliated with Rainbow Tobacco.