The provincial government announced legislation Tuesday aimed at restricting the sale of tobacco in certain locations.

The proposed legislation would ban tobacco sales in pharmacies and health-care facilities and would prohibit the sale of tobacco products in vending machines.

"Research has shown that making it harder to buy tobacco products helps reduce the number of smokers and helps prevent youth from taking up smoking in the first place," said Jim Rondeau, the province's minister of healthy living.

Brothers Pharmacy says they had already decided to stop selling tobacco.

And while they think the new law could hurt the bottom line of big-box store pharmacies, they don't believe it will make a huge difference.

"I think for the most part people still go to gas stations and convenience stores for their cigarettes," said Mike Watts from Brothers Pharmacy.

The Manitoba Tobacco Reduction Alliance said it's time to make it harder to get a licence to sell tobacco in the province.

"I think we should look more at how those licences are issued, and for what purposes they're issued," said Murray Gibson from the Manitoba Tobacco Reduction Alliance. 

- with a report from CTV's Jon Hendricks