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There was once a time when bars were synonymous with smoking. But the blue air of the pub will soon dissipate. On June 1st, Toronto's bars and restaurants will become smoke-free.
With a progressive emphasis on healthy living, many saw the move coming and some bar owners, like Lesley Gaynor, made what they initially thought to be an intelligent business maneuver.
She created a designated smoking room at Queen Street’s Mitzi's Sister.
But now the city of Toronto is moving to ban these as well, leaving the future of Gaynor’s establishment hazy at best.
Creating the room cost her $9,000, a significant sum for a small establishment.
“I'm not a (big steak house) that already has lots of capital behind it. So it was a big decision to take my very limited budget and go, ‘do I take that much of it and spend it on something that could potentially be void?'"
That’s exactly what she did, however, and her worst case scenario may soon become reality. Toronto's Board of Health wants the province to bag designated smoking rooms completely by the year 2007.
Peel Region has already decided to eliminate them by 2010.
The Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association thinks the 2007 deadline is a terrible bait and switch game.
“We had an agreement signed in 1999 with the city that said that they would phase out smoking in bars and restaurants by June 2004,” commented the Association’s Ryan Parks. “We've understood that. But we've also understood that there would be an option for designated smoking rooms. They're trying to change that now.”
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