Smoking restrictions won't force Soo diners to Michigan, meeting told

Smoke-free public places won't force Sault Ste. Marie diners and bar patrons across the river, Michael Perley, director of the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco (OCAT), told local health officials on Thursday.

In fact, local restaurants and watering holes might actually benefit from tighter smoking bylaws, Perley told a meeting organized by the Algoma Health Unit and the Smoke-Free Sault Ste. Marie Committee.

Perley, who led the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain during the 1980s and joined OCAT in 1993, said that studies in both the United States and Canada have demonstrated no net negative economic impact from smoke-free policies.

In fact, the opposite has been observed.

In Ottawa, a city across a river from another city with no restrictions on smoking, hospitality-sector employment actually rose after a smoke-free bylaw was passed last August, Perley said.

Furthermore, both restaurant bankruptcies and employment insurance claims fell after the change, suggesting that diners and bar patrons did not migrate across the river to take advantage of less-restrictive establishments there.

Perley told of one patron who asked staff at his favourite establishment: "Have you guys changed the lighting in here? It's awfully bright." Of course, the patron was just noticing that the air was no longer dark with smoke.

Perley also heard of one establishment owner who tried to blame the failure of his business on a new smoke-free bylaw, when in reality his business closed before the bylaw went into effect.

As for smoking in casinos, Perley said the issue is sensitive, but he was unaware of anything that would stop a municipality from regulating smoking in a provincial casino.