HALIFAX An association representing Canadian convenience stores say the border closure between Quebec and New Brunswick may have helped choke off the illegal tobacco trade in Atlantic Canada. An Ernst & Young report conducted for the Convenience Industry Council of Canada says the so-called Atlantic bubble erected to limit the spread of COVID-19 could explain why legal cigarette sales jumped in the region. We ve always known (illegal sales were) a big problem in Ontario and Quebec, but I think what this really showed was you had another factor for Atlantic Canada, which was, essentially, the closure of the border, council president Anne Kothawala said in an interview Monday.