Townships bar owners hit hard by smoking ban
Provincial bar owners’ union to take government to court
By Sam Solomon
Sherbrooke Record, July 31, 2006
The Eastern Townships is among the “regions suffering the most” as a result of the province’s new anti-smoking laws, says Quebec’s largest bar owners’ union.
Bars in more rural areas, such as the Eastern Townships, are the ones hit hardest by the indoor smoking ban, said Union des tenanciers de bars du Québec representative Jamella Bailey.
“In areas such as these, people have been smoking all their lives. It’s a different lifestyle,” she said, in comparison to the younger and perhaps more adaptable clientele of bars in major urban centres like Montreal.
“Changing the law,” said Bailey, “will not make these people [in rural areas] stop smoking.”
The Union des tenanciers de bars du Québec (UTBQ) represents over 2000 bars and restaurants across the province.
Several hundred Eastern Townships bars and restaurants belong to the union.
Marcel Grenier, owner of Resto Bon Aim’g in Asbesto, said his business has suffered losses of between 20 and 25 per cent.
“It’s not fair,” he said. “Bars with terraces are the ones that will profit—others will suffer.”
“It isn’t going to work,” he said of the government’s attempt to reduce smoking by removing it from bars and restaurants.
The UTBQ’s membership is growing daily—and so is opposition to the anti-smoking laws.
The group filed a request for an injunction in Quebec Superior Court on Tuesday.
“[The injunction] requests suspension of the law until it is actually heard in court, which is in November or December of this year,” said Bailey.
The new anti-smoking laws are known officially in Quebec as Bill 112, a set of amendments made to the existing Tobacco Act. The bill, which came into effect on May 31, prohibits smoking in any bar or restaurant in the province.
The UTBQ claims the ban will cripple its members’ businesses.
“There have already been irreplaceable damages, such as job losses and major money lost,” said Bailey.
The UTBQ estimates that bars’ profits are down by about 20 per cent province-wide since the beginning of the ban. That number is calculated based on self-reported figures provided by member bar owners. Bailey admits that less adversely affected members likely did not participate in the union’s survey as much as did the more seriously affected ones.
The UTBQ claims at least 478 jobs have been lost this summer as a result of the decrease in profits. That number is also self-reported by member bar owners.
Bill 112 is intended to have a “double effect,” according to the Ministry of Health and Social Services: to reduce smoking and to reduce public exposure to second-hand smoke.
“No good can come from smoking and all steps must be taken to fight it,” said an official statement from the Ministry of Health. “To do so, we must change the social standards that portray tobacco and smoking as harmless and normal.”
About 24 per cent of Quebeckers smoke, down from over 35 per cent in 1995. Quebec still has the highest percentage of smokers of all the provinces.
Other provinces and cities across Canada have introduced similar laws over the past several years. A ban similar to Quebec’s also began in Ontario on May 31.
The Senate of Canada unanimously passed a motion on June 7 recommending that the entire country adopt smoking bans in all workplaces and public places.
