Local bar owners butt heads over butting out

A proposal to ban smoking on bar and restaurant patios is proving controversial — not just among smoking and non-smoking patrons but also among bar owners as well.

The community and protective service committee approved new bylaws Wednesday that will ban smoking on city property — including beaches and parks — and on bar and restaurant patios.

If council approves the ban, it will start in April with a probationary period, then take full effect July 2.

Ban supporter Toni Naje owns two local bars, the Firkin & Flyer on Riverside Drive and the Firkin & Knight on Merrivale Road. Both have had non-smoking patios since opening because Naje has asthma.

Business has always been good but not everyone is happy with the policy, he said.

“Right now a lot people won’t go to us because they have a choice to go anywhere else to smoke,” he said. “I have a lot of patrons who call me prejudiced, and they swear and yell and scream and say that I’m out to piss them off, have no respect for them or I’m trying to tell them how to live their lives.”

Bell’s Corners Business Improvement Area head Alex Lewis said bar owners in his area strongly oppose the tougher bylaw, not because they support smoking but because they want to make their own decisions.

“What our BIA is advocating for is the ability to practise private enterprise,” he said. “The world would be a much better place if everybody would butt out. The world would be a much better place as well if the government would butt out of business.”

Not all BIAs agree. Jasna Jennings, the ByWard Market BIA’s executive director,  told the committee her group supports the new bylaws as long as they’re enforced equally.

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Local bar owners butt heads over butting out