Patio-puffing prohibition: Quebec smokers fuming

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This article was published 25/05/2016 (3435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL – Marc-Antoine Gervais says everyone knows lighting up on a patio with a glass of beer is “the best cigarette you can smoke.”

But unfortunately for Gervais that luxury will be over as of Thursday as Quebec becomes the latest jurisdiction in North America to crack down further on smoking in public places.

“It’s a bit annoying,” he said as he enjoyed a puff on the patio of the Sir Winston Churchill Pub on downtown Crescent Street. “It’s blocking my rights.”

As of Thursday, Quebecers will also no longer be allowed to smoke in a car transporting a child under 16 years old or in outdoor play areas intended for children. Additionally, smoking will be outlawed on vacation campgrounds and skating rinks used by minors.

And of course, no more smoking on any of the city’s so-called terrasses (the French word regularly used by English-Montrealers to describe patios), which spring up everywhere in mid-April.

Tammy Aggett, general manager at Madhatter Pub, a popular bar for youthful alcohol aficionados from nearby universities, said the new law will make it easier for people to steal beer if they have to go outside to smoke.

Puffers will leave their drinks to light up and some of them won’t return to pay their tab, she said.

“With younger clientele it happens quite often,” Aggett noted.

Quebec banned indoor smoking inside bars in 2006. Since then, bar owners have blamed the law for what they call a steady decrease in clientele.

While it’s unclear what direct effects the 2006 restrictions may have had, Allan Bruce, who has worked at Montreal’s Brutopia brew pub for 19 years, said he notices fewer people smoking nowadays.

“Oh yeah, people smoke way less,” he said. “It’s obvious.”

Quebec’s new law goes further than pushing smokers off patios. They’ll have to stand nine metres away “from any door, air vent or window to which the public has admittance.”

Aggett said the nine-metre rule will mean more noise complaints from hotels and other establishments as smokers congregate outside to puff.

She said her wait staff will likely have to field complaints from neighbours and visits by police as well as having to boss smoking patrons around.

“The government is getting what they want by putting the onus on everybody else to do it for them,” she said.

But for non-smoker Marianne Allaire, the new law is a good thing.

“I have rights too,” she said, sitting with a friend on a sidewalk patio. “I choose not to smoke and I appreciate that I’m here and I don’t have the smoke come to me, so it’s good.”