Some Windsor restaurant and bar owners are not happy about a smoking ban about to impact outdoor patios.
Ontario will ban smoking on all restaurant and bar patios as well as at playgrounds and publicly owned sports fields starting Jan. 1, 2015, the Liberal government announced Nov.7.
Dave Krndija owns the Rockhead Pub on Ottawa Street and isn't pleased about the new legislation.
"Not happy about it," says Krndija. "It feels a little bit like piling on. Bar owners have enough obstacles."
He is annoyed because year round patios just became a thing in the Rose City, only now to be rendered useless in the winter with the lack of huddled smokers.
"We keep talking about the health risks and smokers know that, smokers aren't blind to the fact that they have issues and cause problems, but if it's that big of a problem, let's just ban smoking all together," says Krndija.
Some downtown patrons believe there are enough rules and regulations when it comes to smokers.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Cancer Society applauds the provincial smoking ban, saying it will help deter young people from lighting up.
“Our funded studies do show that kids start smoking as young as 18 and actually even more recently studies have proven they've started smoking at ages 11 and 12," says Paula Talbot, fundraising coordinator at the Canadian Cancer Society.
Talbot says smoke just a half a metre away from you does the same amount of damage as smoke indoors.
"We are actually hoping that where there is less opportunity for the behaviour then people will cut back and maybe eventually quit," says Talbot.
Statistics show tobacco claims 13,000 lives in Ontario each year and costs the province's health-care system an estimated $2.2 billion in direct costs and another $5.3 billion in indirect costs such as lost productivity.
The smoking rate in Ontario was 18.1 per cent in 2013, down from 24.5 per cent at the turn of the century.
With files from The Canadian Press
