SMOKE LAW UP FROM ASHES

Report urges butt-free bars, restaurants

The controversy over smoking in Toronto restaurants and bars may be about
to flare up again.

A public health report is recommending that all Toronto restaurants and
other family-oriented facilities such as bowling alleys be smoke-free by
April 30, 2001, or restrict smoking to enclosed, ventilated smoking rooms.

But it leaves the door open for that ban to be delayed - as late as May of
2004 - for casinos and bars, as well as bingo, pool and billiard halls
across the amalgamated Toronto.

The report recommends that, in the meantime, smoking will be allowed to
continue in up to 25 per cent of the area of restaurants, bars, bowling
centres, casinos, bingo and billiard halls.

The report is an attempt to draft a uniform smoking bylaw for the new city
of Toronto and replace the patchwork of bylaws that existed in the six
former municipalities of Toronto, Scarborough, North York, York, East York
and Etobicoke.

Though public health officials stress it is just a draft report, the
recommendations are expected to ignite some of the controversy that erupted
in 1996 when Toronto tried to unilaterally ban smoking in public
establishments by the year 2000, without even consulting the public.

Restaurant and bar owners in particular were outraged and warned city
officials the tough bylaw would put them out of business.

Though the new report is a watered-down version of the 1996 ban, Councillor
John Filion (North York Centre), chair of the board of health, knows it
won't satisfy everybody.

``The problem with this whole bylaw is that there is nothing anybody's come
up with so far that fits every situation,'' Filion said.

Filion emphasized that the latest report will be open to public discussion
and, as a result, will likely undergo changes. The board will meet next
Tuesday to decide how that public consultation will take place.

The purpose of the report is twofold, Filion said.

First, a new bylaw will unify existing smoking bylaws, which have varied
somewhat throughout all former municipalities, he said.

Then, the plan is to move toward making all Toronto's public places
smoke-free, Filion said.

However, ``we're open to suggestions on how to do this and even when to do
it,'' he stressed.

With that in mind, a process has been set up to gauge public sentiment
since, ``as the new city of Toronto, we haven't dealt with this issue
before and have never heard any public deputations,'' Filion said.

Recalling the imbroglio of recent years, Filion said he hoped the issue
could be worked through in a civilized way.

``I hope that everybody has learned from the experience three years ago
that it really doesn't get us anywhere to form into two angry camps.''

But he fully expects the heated debate to continue.

On one side, smokers will argue that they should be able to light up
wherever they want and people who object should leave. Health advocates
will push for a smoke-free environment with no exceptions, Filion said.

And restaurant owners will argue that the bylaw creates economic hardship
for them by driving away business from smokers, he said.

But now that Toronto is one big city and not a group of separate
municipalities with varying smoking bylaws, all establishments will be
required to observe the same bylaw, removing some of the arguments about
economic hardship, Filion said.

All workplaces in the City of Toronto are now smoke-free (unless they
provide separately ventilated smoking rooms), although anti-smoking bylaws
were introduced at different times in different municipalities, said Liz
Janzen, regional director for the public health department's south region.

On May 26 and 27, community councils will hear public deputations.