OCT 21 / 2002

Anti-Smoking Bylaw

In over 17 years of continuous restaurant reviewing, I have never used my columns, radio or television spots for political or social commentaries…until now. However it seems the anti-smoking bylaw is up for much needed review, and one can only pray that this time they get it right.

When Edmonton City Council first tackled the issue of smoking in public places, I was delighted, as were most Edmontonians. Then came the lobbying, the politics and the fact that most politicians desperately wanted to appear to be doing right by everyone.

The result was a limpquack bylaw that tried to please both smokers and non-smokers and, of course, pleased no-one. Neither did it do much to address smoking in restaurants.

The inane bylaw ( I personally call it a smoking bylaw – not an anti-smoking bylaw) now required restaurateurs to declare whether their establishments were to be smoking, or non-smoking. If they declared to be the latter, children under 18 were not allowed entry.

This was surely a bold and exciting move. Instead of banning smoking in some establishments, City Council banned children. While I could see the advantage to the general public by banning smoking…second hand smoke and all that…I never did quite figure out the health benefits of banning children.

Some restaurateurs, as well as most nightclub and bar owners, were understandably against any kind of bylaw. They argued that smokers comprised a significant number of patrons. Fair enough. But then they went as far as to say such a bylaw would actually put them out of business.

Ruin their business? I think not. I doubt that many smokers only go to a particular establishment as their only puffing havens. They may have to smoke at home; but if they want to go out drinking with friends, meeting people, picking up women, or whatever, they just won’t be able to smoke while doing it. This isn’t rocket science.

Cities across North America have already made the transition to smokeless public places. There has been no effect on the food and entertainment industries in any major centre.

My disgust for our original smoking bylaw, aside from sidestepping the whole issue sand focussing on kids, was the fact that City Council’s original lack of guts, created an artificial market that arbitrarily would effectively send smoking clientele to a limited number of restaurants.

No longer did people go to where they wanted to eat, or to where the food was best. Some now went to wherever they could smoke. If the smoking bylaw had teeth, people, as in the case of nightclubs, would still go where they like to go…they just wouldn’t be able to smoke.

Interestingly, some establishments actually gained business by banning children and welcoming smokers. Quell surprise! So now we had a bylaw that was originally intended to dissuade smoking, actually rewarding rebellious owners for maintaining smoking premises.

To make things worse, there was a cute loophole. If the restaurant had a lounge area, and smoking was restricted to the lounge, then children could dine in the restaurant section. The lounge in many restaurants is not necessarily a totally separate and enclosed area. There is absolutely no difference between some of these open lounge areas and the old smoking / non-smoking sections.

This came to light again this past weekend. My 85-year-old friend, Betty, and I went with the kids to do their Family Dining review. As with most kids, they love Mexican food. There was a lineup and a waiting time of about 20 minutes. Fine.

Betty and I were invited to go into the lounge to have a drink and wait more comfortably. The children had to huddle by the door. They weren’t allowed in. It had nothing to do with the alcohol, but rather the smoking.

Yet when we were finally all seated for dinner, we were we placed just under the lounge area, not 15 feet away. Yesiree, those kids were certainly protected by City Council.

So now Edmonton, having fallen far behind many other municipalities that had the balls to simply ban smoking in public places, wants to review its smoking bylaw. In part it may be motivated by the fact the provincial government is likely to usurp the initiative and make such smoking restrictions province-wide.

While there will be the predictable howls of injustice, it is likely to be a popular piece of legislation. There may be some posturing, but I doubt if any political party will vote against it. So if the City doesn’t act, it will be one of the few governing bodies known to have never taken definitive action. It was already ridiculed across the nation for banning kids rather than smoking.

Once again, the proponents of smoking are screaming it will be the end of their businesses and unduly affect the economy. To that, I say ‘pheldegarb’. At worst, it will put the dining patterns of Edmontonians back the way they were before City Council started mucking with them in the first place.

Where we go out will once again be determined by what we like to eat, prices and all those regular factors relating to dining and socializing – not smoking.

Edmonton has once more chance. Let’s hope this time municipal politicians have the courage to get it right.