Slave Lake Town Council gave first reading to its new smoking by-law at its May 20 meeting. What that means is that the proposed by-law will go to a public hearing. What it doesn’t mean is that it will necessarily end up looking like it did at first reading.
The by-law has many aspects, but the central one is that restaurants and other such public places should designate 60 per cent of their area as non-smoking. That’s a 20 per cent increase from the current situation.
Council is very aware, however, that a 60 – 40 split doesn’t solve the problem of second-hand smoke. They heard that again from the Slave Lake Tobacco Coalition – one of two delegations to speak at the meeting.
“The 60 – 40 split is like a no-peeing section in the pool,” said coalition member Edith Mackenzie. She urged council to be bold enough to go all the way to a 100 per cent ban on smoking in places that serve minors.
“Health and safety should come first,” before economic considerations, she said.
Economic considerations are on the mind of the Slave Lake Restaurant Association, which also made a presentation at the meeting.
Northwest Inn Assistant Manager Larry Willis said the association supports the 60 – 40 amendment to the by-law, but has serious concerns about the 100 per cent ban idea. He pointed out that if such a ban were implemented in town, it would drive business out of town to restaurants outside of town limits.
“They’ll benefit, we’ll lose,” he said.
Willis said that the split between smoking and non-smoking areas works quite well at the NW Inn, and cited a nearly 50 – 50 smokers/non-smokers split in Mother’s Day reservations as evidence.
He said an informal poll of coffee shop patrons showed that smokers and even some non-smokers alike would take their business elsewhere in a 100 per cent ban situation.
Willis predicted a loss of business, loss of jobs and consequent reduction in the ability of negatively affected businesses to support community causes.
The by-law comes up for public hearing on June 17 in council chambers.

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