The health benefits of reduced tobacco use outweigh any negative impacts from higher taxes on cigarettes, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday as convenience store owners demonstrated against tax hikes they say threaten their livelihoods.

McGuinty defended his government's anti-tobacco offensive, including a decision to raise tobacco taxes, despite complaints from store owners that the province's efforts to snuff out the habit are leading to more robberies.

"People who are experts in these matters ... tell us that the single most important deterrent when it comes to preventing young people from taking up smoking in the first instance is pricing,'' McGuinty said Tuesday before members of the Ontario Korean Businessmen's Association demonstrated outside the legislature.

"As a government, we have been very clear that we are going to be very aggressive when it comes to reducing usage of tobacco.''

During the protest, hundreds of Korean business owners argued that higher taxes have resulted in lower sales and a greater threat from thieves who come in hoping not to clean out the cash register, but the cigarette rack instead.

"Ontario's convenience stores, thousands of which are run by Korean-Canadians, are being pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by this government's anti-small business policies,'' association spokesman Sonny Cho told the crowd of protesters.

Many of those on hand for the protest brandished signs indicating they were from a variety of Ontario cities, including London, Hamilton, Windsor and Newmarket, among others.

The association claims as much as 75 per cent of a corner store's sales are attributed to tobacco.

In January, the Ontario government increased provincial levies by $1.25 per carton. It was the government's fourth tobacco tax hike since the Liberals took office in 2003.

Earlier this month, Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson launched a $3.1-million anti-smoking campaign aimed at educating the public and businesses about the coming limitations on where a smoker can light up.

As of May 31, a new provincial law will ban smoking in all public places and covered patios. Also, so-called "power walls'' that display cigarettes behind store counters -- one of the few remaining means for tobacco companies to market their products -- will be banned by 2008.

Cho said such changes, along with lost sales due to higher tobacco taxes, and higher insurance rates to cover potential robberies, will "saddle'' convenience stores with up to $20,000 in direct and indirect costs.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said businesses have had plenty of time to adjust to the government's anti-smoking policies and noted that sales of other convenience store items, such as lottery tickets, are rising.

Cho said that while his members aren't opposed to encouraging smokers to quit and discouraging youth from starting in the first place, they want help in the form of transitional funding -- similar to the $100 million pledged for Ontario's tobacco farmers.

"This premier has shown he doesn't understand the importance of small businesses or the challenges we face,'' said Cho.

"Worse yet, this government has repeatedly taken actions that have downloaded costs on small convenience store businesses and made them a bigger target for crime.''