Smoke police accused of going soft on Lottery Corp.

NEWS RELEASE

MYCHOICE.CA

************************** Government gives its own casinos a break on smoking ban laws

January 16, 2007: The Ontario government is breaking its own smoking ban laws and trying to stem mounting gaming revenue losses by providing expensive heated and roofed smoking shelters at its casinos.

Canada's largest smokers' rights group today called for an end to this hypocrisy and for other businesses to be allowed to provide smoking patrons with at least the same facilities as casinos.

Mychoice.ca, which has more than 40,000 members, also called on local health authorities to show the same latitude they are giving the government to everyone.

"We believe smokers should have at least the same consideration whether it is at a bar or a casino or charity bingo they choose to visit, a long-term care facility they are forced to live in or a hospital they have to go to," said mychoice.ca president Nancy Daigneault.

"It is outrageous that the government should ignore the difficulties everyone else faces because of its regulations, but gives itself a break because its casinos are tanking," said Ms. Daigneault.

It is equally outrageous that local health authorities, who campaigned for this law and have been given the power and funding to interpret and enforce it, are giving casinos the green light while zealously pursuing and punishing everyone else. "They are licking the hand that feeds them, while showing no mercy to anyone else," said Ms. Daigneault.

Ms. Daigneault noted that these same soft-on-the-government groups are increasingly going beyond the scope of the provincial law and arbitrarily denying even long-term care residents and hospital patients any shelters and forcing them out on to city streets to smoke.

The Smoke Free Ontario Act regulations - which can be viewed online here, make it clear the casino shelters are illegal:

Section 13 - Bar and restaurant patios - states:

For the purposes of paragraph 7 of subsection 9 (2) of the Act, a place or area is prescribed if it meets all of the following conditions:

1. The public is ordinarily invited or permitted access to the place or area, either expressly or by implication, whether or not a fee is charged for entry, or the place or area is worked in or frequented by employees during the course of their employment whether or not they are acting in the course of their employment at the time.

2. The place or area has a roof.

3. Food or drink is served or sold or offered for consumption in the place or area, or the place or area is part of or operated in conjunction with a place or area where food or drink is served or sold or offered.

4. The place or area is not primarily a private dwelling.

Section 14 - Smoking shelters - states: For the purposes of paragraph 7 of subsection 9 (2) of the Act, a place or area is prescribed if it meets all of the following conditions:

1. The public is ordinarily invited or permitted access to the place or area, either expressly or by implication, whether or not a fee is charged for entry, or the place or area is worked in or frequented by employees during the course of their employment whether or not they are acting in the course of their employment at the time.

2. The place or area has a roof and more than two walls.

3. The place or area is not primarily a private dwelling.

There is no mention of exemptions for casinos, gaming or anything else, but this is not stopping the government.

The Windsor Star recently reported that Casino Windsor had been allocated $2.3 million for covered and heated outdoor shelters and another $250,000 has been spent on a similar shelter for the area’s raceway slots.

These expensive shelters have been approved by the local health authority.

Neil MacKenzie, manager of tobacco programs for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, which is responsible for enforcing the law, said the casinos can have them because "their primary business is gaming."

This is not what the law says.

Outdoor shelters with roofs are not allowed.

Julie Rosenberg, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health, said. "Smoking shelters at stand-alone restaurants are not permitted and casinos are not stand-alone restaurants."

And Don Pister, of the OLG, said the casino shelters are okay because they are not adjacent to restaurant or bar areas in the casinos.

This, again, is not what the law says.

It states they are not allowed if "the place or area is part of or operated in conjunction with a place or area where food or drink is served or sold or offered."

Food and drink are offered, sold and served in casinos.

Down the road in Windsor, Highway Tavern owners Liz and Jerry Burns were this month threatened with a $4,000 fine unless they removed a plywood roof from a simple smoking shack they had erected for patrons in the parking lot after seeing the casino shelters.

"My mother started this tavern 40 years ago and many of the regulars have been coming here since I was a kid and are elderly now, so we put up this plywood shelter so they would have somewhere to smoke out of the cold and rain," said Liz Burns. "We were forced to rip it down by the same people who say it is okay for the government to spend $2.3 million on heated shelters for its casino patrons - where is the fairness in that.?"

The government has or is building expensive shelters at other casinos and slots across the province, including Niagara Falls, which like Windsor has seen a massive drop in revenues since the smoking ban came into force last May 31.

"Why should a smoker at a bar or a long term care home or a hospital be entitled to less protection from the elements than a smoker at a casino? What difference should it make if it is beer or bingo, or bed and board on one hand and blackjack on the other?" said mychoice.ca's Ms. Daigneault. "What is fair for the government should be fair for everyone."

Mychoice.ca offers a voice for Canada's adult smokers and others who believe in fair laws, government accountability and personal choice.

It is funded by the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council, but is a registered non-profit organization operating independently on behalf of the more than 40,000 individuals who have signed up as members.

**************************