Slave Lake Town councillors could be asked to choose between personal and business health when they create a new smoking bylaw for this community.
And it’s a debate where they’re seeing few shades of gray.
Council was expected to give first reading to a new smoking bylaw Tuesday (May 20), but already councillors are hearing it won’t be an easy debate.
The proposed bylaw insists all restaurant owners set aside 60 per cent of their dining area for non-smokers.
The former bylaw – which expired at the end of December — ordered 40 per cent of the floor space be set aside for non-smokers.
A tobacco lobby group has been pushing council to ban smoking in any establishments that allow customers under the age of 18 years. It insists smoking and second hand smoke are unhealthy, and that such bans make sense.
And many residents, it would seem, agree wholeheartedly.
Councillor Shirley Torresan-Chykerda says every resident that’s approached her – save one – like the idea of smoking bans in restaurant. The only opposition, she said, came from a businessperson that worried about suggestions that he might have to ban smoking in his establishment.
And while council will merely give the new bylaw first reading Tuesday, Torresan-Chykerda says she doesn’t like it.
Carrying on with imaginary divisions in eating establishments, she says, is “just a bunch of fluff for nothing.
“And even the medical community is urging council to take a serious look” at making diners butt out.
Torresan-Chykerda was on the bylaw committee that created the new legislation, and says she voiced her opposition to the 60-40 split, but was unable to change the committee’s mind. Councillor George Snider, on the other hand, says all he’s hearing from constituents is opposition to the ban.
“I’d agree with the 100 per cent ban if we could create a rule for everything within a five mile radius” of the community, he says. But making Slave Lake businesses ban smoking in their establishments while having no say in neighbouring jurisdictions – like the M.D. of Lesser Slave River and the Sawridge First Nation reserve – is patently unfair.
And besides, he adds, banning smoking has become “the big dust up in Alberta in recent years,” and Slave Lake is only thinking about following suit.
“I think we’re doing the right thing by teaching our kids about health problems, but there’s a big smoking population in this town, and we’ve got to look at the health of businesses too.” And while she blames smoking for the fact that she has only one kidney, Councillor Evelyn Norberg agrees.
“It’s an addiction,” she says, adding that many concerned business people and residents tell her they like the 60-40 split.
“I look at health, but at business too. People are worried about losing business.”
Mayor Ray Stern says no businesses have lobbied him about the issue, so he has made a point of going out and asking what residents think about a smoking ban.
“And I’m amazed at the near unanimity, the support for a smoking ban.”
He says he hopes residents fill council chambers when council hosts its public meeting next month, “because I want to feel I’m making a decision on their behalf. And I hope this council can put this thing behind it, and not just hide it for a year or two.”
Speaking from a personal perspective, Stern believes “drawing a magical line in the center of a physical room is a farce,” and that’s why he hopes residents get involved in the public hearing process.
The only councillor who says she’s hearing from both sides of the debate is Councillor Valerie Tradewell. And the concerns are giving her a reason to consider both sides.
“Many of those I’m talking to are saying (ban smoking), but some businesses are saying they’re going to lose business. And we’re going to have to look at the unique situation we have with the municipal district on one side and the (Sawridge First Nation) on the other.”
Tradewell says she’s been studying other communities around the province and has discovered many are phasing in their bans over a number of years. So Slave Lake’s proposed bylaw isn’t so different.
Either way, she says she hopes residents come out and share their thoughts at the public hearing nest month.
“Public input is going to be critical.”

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