On June 1st, at midnight, Toronto goes smoke free. Every bar and restaurant in Toronto will fall under the new municipal bylaw prohibiting smoking in public places. Customers and workers alike are unsure how this will affect business, but they all agree on one thing: life will be very different in bars and restaurants after June 1st.
Jeremy, a bartender at O’Grady’s, a local College Street bar, isn’t certain how the change will affect him or his bar.
“It all depends. We have a small patio, which means that summer time is a time that we will probably lose many customers to places with bigger ones. I guess winter will even things out.”
“There are going to be more fights,” said Frank Matthews, a manager at Einstein’s on College Street. “They are gonna nic[otine]-fit and fight for the first couple of months. [However] In the long term it is better. Someone is gonna have to pay for all the health care in thirty years.”
Mike Unea, a first year student at Guelph University, said that he loves the fact that he doesn’t leave his campus bars coughing, but he notes other concerns with the bylaw: BO.
“It’s been smoke free in Guelph all year, and things are kickin’. I am a non-smoker, so I am obviously a fan of the rule. The problem is that at a club where everyone is dancing and no one is smoking, the sweat takes over and instead of smoke. It gets nasty some nights”, Unea said.
Zack Glennon, a U of T student and avid smoker, seemed to be open to the new by-law.
“Torontonians and us young people are going to be the deciding factor here. If we like it then it works, if we don’t, then it won’t. The bar business and the bar environment are at stake here. Taking this law into the winter is going to be the only way to see if it can hold, and what effect it will have”.
Public health inspectors will give out tickets as severe as $5000 for violating the regulation. Patios are not included in the by-law, but summer in Toronto eventually leads to winter, and patios become scarce. The sub-zero temperatures will not be as inviting for most smokers to step outside and have a cigarette.
Workers and customers of local bars are clearly unsure about the change. Many are happy that they are no longer going to be exposed to secondhand smoke, which until now was a risk that they had to take in order to work in a bar. At the same time the loss of smokers could mean the loss of business, and for most bar staff that would mean a loss of tips, which is an important source of income for many.
For those smokers taking their last indoor puffs, the clock is ticking.
