Action is Clear

Friday, January 5th, 2007
This will appear as a ‘bit o’ rant’ regarding the lack of courage being demonstrated by municpal authorities in Calgary.

On January 1, 2007 Calgary finally became a smoke free city (well almost). No smoking in public places including restaraunts and bars and patios (to be defined). An exemption until January 1 2008 was given to Bingo Halls, Casinos, and bars that had installed separate ventalated rooms. Jan 1 comes and goes and a few bar owners are openly contraveening the bylaw and publically suggesting that there is nothing that can/will be done by enforcement officers. Now there has been a lot of nonsense around this issue with lobby groups coralling councillors and aldermen speaking out on the issue. The media has used secret cameras to show bars where smoking is continuing and suggesting that there has been a impact on business for both the complying bars and offending saloons. One bar owner is suggesting that more than 1/2 his revenue comes from VLTs so he should be treated like a casino. If that happened, he would need to share 50% of his revenue with a charity.

The action is clear - before this becomes a laughing stock again, officers need to clamp done as hard and fast as possible on offenders. Whether you agree with the bylaw, we can’t allow flagrant abuse of our rules. Warn them , fine them, close them down!