[Intl-tobacco] Canada: Three provinces douse smoking in public

[robert weissman]

Three provinces douse smoking in public
CTV.ca
October 2, 2004

Smokers were fuming across the country on Friday, as new laws prohibiting
smoking took effect in three provinces. In Manitoba, the new rules prohibit
smokers from lighting up in enclosed public places, including bars and
restaurants.

The province's Healthy Living Minister, Jim Rondeau, says the aim is to
protect people from second-hand smoke. And he says having fewer places to
smoke might convince many smokers to quit.

That was small consolation to at least one bar owner who, upset with the
ban's potential impact on business, dropped dozens of ashtrays at Rondeau's
office.

The ban does not apply everywhere, however. Federal areas such as military
bases and prisons are exempt, as are native reserves. Some native bands
have already announced plans to set up new bingo halls or casinos where
smoking will be allowed.

Non-native bar owners say the exemption is unfair, and will put them at a
disadvantage. The Manitoba Hotel Association says there should be one rule
for everyone -- native and non-native.

In New Brunswick, dissatsfied smokers say their premier can expect to get
burned at the polls for his government's new anti-smoking law.

Premier Bernard Lord's ban covers all indoor public places, workplaces,
school grounds, retail stores, community halls, bingo halls, bars and
restaurants.

Lord says it's one of the toughest in the country, and is projected to
reduce second-hand smoke exposure by 80 per cent and smoking by 20 per cent.

New Brunswick smoker Barry McGrath in unimpressed. He says the ban violates
his rights. "If I want to smoke, I'm going to smoke. If people don't want
to smoke, don't come in the extablishment," he told CTV's Atlantic
affiliate.

The province raked in $97 million last year from tobacco taxes. But Lord
says the benefits of the ban outweigh the costs. The province estimates it
will save $132 million in health-care costs and productivity losses thanks
to the ban.

And in Alberta, smokers' irritation should be confined to the prisons -- as
that's where a ban covering smoking by both inmates and guards kicked in..

The union representing prison guards doesn't expect any problems as a result
of the smoking ban. But Gordon Sand of the John Howard Society says it will
be tough for inmates who smoke.

Sand says it's already stressful for those doing a lengthy sentence and to
quit cold turkey makes it even worse. He says drugs still make it into
prisons and he expects cigarettes will be smuggled in, too.

Manitoba and New Brunswick are Canada's first provinces to institute
provincewide bans. A similar law in Saskatchewan takes effect in January.

Several other provinces already have partial bans that only allow smoking in
specially ventilated rooms.