Saskatchewan Update
Saskatchewan cracks down on smoking
August 5, 2010
By Chris Carr
New laws being introduced
The Saskatchewan government is cracking down on smoking.
As of August 15, it will be illegal to light up on school property in Saskatchewan.
Also, you won’t be stopping at a pharmacy to buy cigarettes in the future. Health Minister Don McMorris says sales there will be banned as of January 1.
“The reason for that delay is we want to make sure that we work with the retailers, to make sure they have the time to meet the regulations that we put forward,” said McMorris.
By October, it will be against the law to smoke in cars with children under the age of 16 present.
Regina, Moose Jaw casinos post big profit -SK
July 28, 2008
Leader-Post
REGINA — The Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation, which operates the casinos in Regina and Moose Jaw, posted a net income of $43.8 million in the most recent fiscal year, a bottom line boosted by record revenues.
SGC reported Monday revenues of $128.7 million — a 15- per-cent increase over the previous year — and expenses of $75.7 million for the year ended March 31, 2008. Also factored into net income are items such as promotional allowances.
Half of the gaming corporation’s profits are delivered to the provincial government’s general revenue fund. The Community Initiatives Fund and First Nations Trust Fund also each receive 25 per cent of the net profits, with the funds supporting non-profit and economic development organizations and funding for projects in First Nations communities.
According to the annual report, slot revenues were $104.1 million, while table revenues were $10.4 million for the 2007-08 fiscal year. Average daily attendance for Casino Regina was 6,639, and 1,588 per day in Moose Jaw.
The workforce for both casinos is 1,050. Aboriginal employees represent 42 per cent of the total workforce, the report noted.
“This past year has been outstanding for SGC financially, and we have seen great success toward reaching our goals of being an employer of choice and a leader in our communities,” Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation board chair Wes Becker said in a news release.
The corporation was nominated for Business of the Year from Tourism Saskatchewan and the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, and was also named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for the first time and one of Saskatchewan’s Top 10 Employers for the second year in a row.
Only effective protection is smoking ban at casino
Published: Friday, August 17, 2007
The StarPhoenix
Re: Games begin at Dakota Dunes (SP, Aug. 10). Congratulations to the Whitecap Dakota First Nations on the grand opening of its new casino.
According to this story, the $61-million casino structure has the latest bells and whistles, including a ventilation system that’s so high-tech that its smoking room “doesn’t need doors.”
Really?
According to the world’s leading association of heating and air conditioning engineers (ASHRAE), there is no acceptable ventilation system that can protect individuals from the poisons found in cigarette smoke. It states that “the only way to effectively eliminate health risk associated with indoor exposure is to ban smoking.”
Physicist James Repace, an internally recognized expert on second-hand smoke, says it would take tornado-like levels of ventilation to reach an acceptable risk level of exposure.
Health Canada and the U.S. Surgeon General both say there is no safe level of second-hand smoke, period. It sickens and it kills. Our hearts go out to those casino workers who will have to clean or serve that smoking room. No one should have to trade their health for a paycheque.
Donna Pasiechnik, Tobacco Control Co-ordinator, Canadian Cancer Society
Games begin at Dakota Dunes
Published: Friday, August 10, 2007
Janet French, of The StarPhoenix
Casino is about building dreams: tribal council chief
WHITECAP DAKOTA FIRST NATION — Behind the black curtain, servers in crisp green uniforms held up their trays and notepads, and dealers waited at their posts behind the gaming tables with nervous smiles, waiting to greet the first customers at the Dakota Dunes Casino.
With the pounding of a drum, the singing of the Lightning Spirit musicians and the swish of grass dancers’ elaborate costumes, staff dropped the curtain, and spectators milled in to catch their first glance of the province’s newest and largest casino.
As dignitaries snipped through the red ribbon to mark Dakota Dunes’ official opening Thursday evening, a line of invited guests snaked down a red carpet, past a jazz duo and twirling dancers, and stretched far down the pavement outside the new $61-million facility.
“This casino is about building dreams, creating jobs and building economic prosperity,” Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Joe Quewezance said moments earlier at a welcoming ceremony inside the casino’s colourful multipurpose room. “Today this dream has come alive.”
The 84,000-square-foot casino houses 620 slot machines, table games, a restaurant and buffet, deli, bar and the 7,000-square-foot multipurpose room, which can hold up to 800 people for events such as conferences and concerts.
There’s about 420 jobs at the casino, 410 of which are filled. Gary Daniels, general manager of Dakota Dunes, said about 77 per cent of the staff are First Nations people, which he hopes to increase to the SIGA mandate of hiring 80 per cent First Nations workers.
More than two years after Whitecap Dakota First Nation Chief Darcy Bear first saw an artist’s rendering of the casino, he said the new facility is “overwhelming” to behold in person.
“It’s a beautiful building,” he said. “It’s the best in Western Canada. There’s nothing like it. It’s done up the way a gaming facility should be done up.”
At the front of the building, which is 27 kilometres south of Saskatoon, visitors are greeted by three metallic buffalo mounted atop a rock. Under a sprawling awning, valet parking staff await guests’ arrival.
Through reflective sliding doors is the foyer, featuring a marble floor and the appearance of a wall of water, created by light projectors. The seven pillars in the entranceway each feature an animated light-up logo for the seven First Nations in the Saskatoon Tribal Council.
Once inside, banks of slot machines that accept sums of money between one cent and $1 a pull stretch in every direction. On the ceiling in the centre of the gaming area is something the casino calls the “home fires,” where a smoke-like substance wafts out of pillars into a ceiling feature that looks like a stained-glass representation of fire. Designed with the input of elders, First Nations symbols abound on the brightly coloured carpets, the walls and the ceiling.
Off in one corner, dozens of slots sit behind glass walls in the casino’s smoking room. A high-pressure ventillation system means the area doesn’t need doors.
Patrons can grab a snack at the deli, sit down for a meal at the Dunes Buffet, or sip a cocktail in the sparkling silver and black bar area. Through a short hall at the north end of the gaming floor is the sprawling multipurpose room, complete with rippling sand dunes on the walls.
“It’s fantastic,” gushes Del Cook, a self-described gambler who came to the opening with her husband, Merv Green. Both say none of the other casinos in the province compare.
The mini Vegas-style casino is estimated to draw between 1.8 million and 2 million visitors each year to the reserve of 250 people, Bear said.
While he says it could pump more than $40 million back into the local economy, the reserve has had to prepare for the influx of people and businesses.
The community has spent more than $12 million on infrastructure upgrades, including expanding the sewage lagoon and storm water system, and a new water treatment utility. It expanded the natural gas and power network, added and paved roads, and brought in high speed Internet, he said.
The First Nation is also moving to beef up policing to keep a watchful eye on the influx of new visitors. Bear said the band is in talks with the federal and provincial government in attempt to get funding for up to three full-time RCMP officers stationed in a new post on the reserve.
For those living in the city, working or playing at the casino will require a drive — from 20 to 25 minutes from the south side of Saskatoon to as long as 45 minutes from the far east, north and west parts of the city.
Casino manager Daniels said the operation has it covered — a free shuttle will take workers and patrons from four city locations to and from the casino at two-hour intervals. Two minibuses and one 58-passenger bus will ferry people from Confederation, downtown, Market Mall and Circle and Eighth out to Dakota Dunes.
When interviewed last week, several patrons of Saskatoon’s now-closed Emerald Casino said the distance to the flashy new facility could stand in the way of them gambling as often.
Daniels said many residents in large cities spend more time commuting daily than it would take most patrons to get from the city to the casino and back.
“It is an issue, but there’s really not much we can do,” he said. “It’s up here, and we can’t really move the casino in closer.”
Bear believes the naysayers will likely change their tune when they experience the “wow factor” of the casino and the high-quality customer service there.
“Everybody says our golf course is too far away, and we’ve got one of the most successful golf courses in the area,” he said. “Everybody else’s numbers are down. Our numbers have continued to increase every year.”
Dakota Dunes Casino officially opens to the public at 9 a.m. today.
jfrench@sp.canwest.com
Published: Friday, August 10, 2007
Janet French, of The StarPhoenix
Casino is about building dreams: tribal council chief
WHITECAP DAKOTA FIRST NATION — Behind the black curtain, servers in crisp green uniforms held up their trays and notepads, and dealers waited at their posts behind the gaming tables with nervous smiles, waiting to greet the first customers at the Dakota Dunes Casino.
With the pounding of a drum, the singing of the Lightning Spirit musicians and the swish of grass dancers’ elaborate costumes, staff dropped the curtain, and spectators milled in to catch their first glance of the province’s newest and largest casino.
As dignitaries snipped through the red ribbon to mark Dakota Dunes’ official opening Thursday evening, a line of invited guests snaked down a red carpet, past a jazz duo and twirling dancers, and stretched far down the pavement outside the new $61-million facility.
“This casino is about building dreams, creating jobs and building economic prosperity,” Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Joe Quewezance said moments earlier at a welcoming ceremony inside the casino’s colourful multipurpose room. “Today this dream has come alive.”
The 84,000-square-foot casino houses 620 slot machines, table games, a restaurant and buffet, deli, bar and the 7,000-square-foot multipurpose room, which can hold up to 800 people for events such as conferences and concerts.
There’s about 420 jobs at the casino, 410 of which are filled. Gary Daniels, general manager of Dakota Dunes, said about 77 per cent of the staff are First Nations people, which he hopes to increase to the SIGA mandate of hiring 80 per cent First Nations workers.
More than two years after Whitecap Dakota First Nation Chief Darcy Bear first saw an artist’s rendering of the casino, he said the new facility is “overwhelming” to behold in person.
“It’s a beautiful building,” he said. “It’s the best in Western Canada. There’s nothing like it. It’s done up the way a gaming facility should be done up.”
At the front of the building, which is 27 kilometres south of Saskatoon, visitors are greeted by three metallic buffalo mounted atop a rock. Under a sprawling awning, valet parking staff await guests’ arrival.
Through reflective sliding doors is the foyer, featuring a marble floor and the appearance of a wall of water, created by light projectors. The seven pillars in the entranceway each feature an animated light-up logo for the seven First Nations in the Saskatoon Tribal Council.
Once inside, banks of slot machines that accept sums of money between one cent and $1 a pull stretch in every direction. On the ceiling in the centre of the gaming area is something the casino calls the “home fires,” where a smoke-like substance wafts out of pillars into a ceiling feature that looks like a stained-glass representation of fire. Designed with the input of elders, First Nations symbols abound on the brightly coloured carpets, the walls and the ceiling.
Off in one corner, dozens of slots sit behind glass walls in the casino’s smoking room. A high-pressure ventillation system means the area doesn’t need doors.
Patrons can grab a snack at the deli, sit down for a meal at the Dunes Buffet, or sip a cocktail in the sparkling silver and black bar area. Through a short hall at the north end of the gaming floor is the sprawling multipurpose room, complete with rippling sand dunes on the walls.
“It’s fantastic,” gushes Del Cook, a self-described gambler who came to the opening with her husband, Merv Green. Both say none of the other casinos in the province compare.
The mini Vegas-style casino is estimated to draw between 1.8 million and 2 million visitors each year to the reserve of 250 people, Bear said.
While he says it could pump more than $40 million back into the local economy, the reserve has had to prepare for the influx of people and businesses.
The community has spent more than $12 million on infrastructure upgrades, including expanding the sewage lagoon and storm water system, and a new water treatment utility. It expanded the natural gas and power network, added and paved roads, and brought in high speed Internet, he said.
The First Nation is also moving to beef up policing to keep a watchful eye on the influx of new visitors. Bear said the band is in talks with the federal and provincial government in attempt to get funding for up to three full-time RCMP officers stationed in a new post on the reserve.
For those living in the city, working or playing at the casino will require a drive — from 20 to 25 minutes from the south side of Saskatoon to as long as 45 minutes from the far east, north and west parts of the city.
Casino manager Daniels said the operation has it covered — a free shuttle will take workers and patrons from four city locations to and from the casino at two-hour intervals. Two minibuses and one 58-passenger bus will ferry people from Confederation, downtown, Market Mall and Circle and Eighth out to Dakota Dunes.
When interviewed last week, several patrons of Saskatoon’s now-closed Emerald Casino said the distance to the flashy new facility could stand in the way of them gambling as often.
Daniels said many residents in large cities spend more time commuting daily than it would take most patrons to get from the city to the casino and back.
“It is an issue, but there’s really not much we can do,” he said. “It’s up here, and we can’t really move the casino in closer.”
Bear believes the naysayers will likely change their tune when they experience the “wow factor” of the casino and the high-quality customer service there.
“Everybody says our golf course is too far away, and we’ve got one of the most successful golf courses in the area,” he said. “Everybody else’s numbers are down. Our numbers have continued to increase every year.”
Dakota Dunes Casino officially opens to the public at 9 a.m. today.
jfrench@sp.canwest.com
Smokers targeted -SK
July 17, 2007
Lori Coolican, The StarPhoenix
Lori Coolican, The StarPhoenix
City policy tightened; still no penalties
Before too long, stepping outside the doors of a city-owned building for a quick puff will be a no-no.
City council approved a new policy on Monday night that will ban smoking within six to nine metres of entrances and exits at all civic facilities, including TCU Place and Credit U nion Centre.
Since it’s a policy and not a bylaw, those who ignore the new rule will not be saddled with a ticket, city solicitor Theresa Dust told council.
Managers of civic facilities will be asked to inform their customers, erect signs reminding people of the ban and create designated areas outside the no-smoking zones for those who want a nicotine fix.
Civic staff are “not expected to wrestle people to the ground or be unreasonable” when enforcing the new policy, Dust said.
Most buildings covered by the ban are surrounded by enough open space to accommodate smokers without pushing them into traffic, she told council.
Except at the main library and police headquarters, “it’s quite common for there to be some distance between the front of the building and the street,” she noted.
Managers and boards of directors in charge of the city’s various facilities were consulted about the policy and gave it unanimous support, though their reactions “varied from quite enthusiastic to ‘If this is what council likes, we have no problem giving it a try,’ ” Dust said.
At facilities where staff have no option but to use a building’s rear doors, workers have complained about being forced to walk through smoke on the way in and out of their workplace, she said.
The new policy was prompted by an inquiry Coun. Bev Dubois made at a council meeting last December.
Creating designated areas to accommodate smokers is a smart way to address things, and most smokers are polite enough to accept the new rule without a fuss, said Coun. Maurice Neault.
Sask. plans for tobacco lawsuit takes big hit -ON
December 12, 2006
James Wood, The Star Phoenix
James Wood, The Star Phoenix
Ont. won’t join other provinces in costly action
REGINA — The prospect of Saskatchewan suing tobacco companies for health-care costs suffered a setback on Monday, when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said his government wouldn’t join other provinces in such a lawsuit.
Saskatchewan’s NDP government last month introduced legislation — similar to that in place in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Manitoba — that would give it the ability to sue for smoking-related health-care costs.
But Healthy Living Services Minister Graham Addley said at the time that any future lawsuit would likely be done in conjunction with other provinces and that it could hinge on the involvement of Quebec and Ontario because of the large-scale costs involved.
On Monday, Addley said he was disappointed and surprised by Ontario’s decision, since Health Minister George Smitherman made no mention of it at a weekend meeting of the country’s health ministers.
“I don’t think it’s helpful,” he said in a telephone interview. “The first step that we were doing is to try and build a national consensus on this, because it will be very challenging for a smaller province to go on its own with the costs.”
British Columbia is the only province that has launched a lawsuit so far. Saskatchewan’s legislation won’t be voted on until the legislature resumes sitting in the spring.
Addley said Saskatchewan will continue to work with other jurisdictions on the possibility of a lawsuit, but he could not say whether the current number of provinces that have enabling legislation was sufficient to take the tobacco companies to court.
The problem is not only legal costs but the extensive research that would be needed in such a suit.
“If Quebec and Ontario don’t participate, that would make it very challenging. . . . They’re quite important,” said Addley.
McGuinty said his Liberal government is not interested in “punishing big tobacco” and expressed skepticism that such a lawsuit would be successful.
Addley said he has always stressed the process would take some time and the Saskatchewan government has never guaranteed it would actually launch a lawsuit.
“We have to move very cautiously and carefully, because this is not an obvious win.
“These are companies that have very deep pockets and they will work very hard and use every legal means at their disposal to extend it, so it’s going to be a very expensive process, it’s going to be a very challenging process,” he said.
Addley said it may have been a difficult position for Ontario because the province is home to many tobacco farmers.
Saskatchewan estimates its direct smoking-related health costs at $145 million and indirect costs as high as $400 million. The legislation would allow the province to sue for both past and future costs, meaning a massive amount could be at stake.
Going after tobacco makers
November 23, 2006
James Wood, Saskatchewan News Network
James Wood, Saskatchewan News Network
The Saskatchewan government will soon be able to sue tobacco companies to recover the health-care costs from smoking although just how quickly that will happen is up in the air.
The NDP government this week introduced legislation patterned after British Columbia’s landmark law which allows the province to sue for both past and future health-care costs.
Graham Addley, minister of Healthy Living Services, said there’s a great deal of work that needs to be done before a lawsuit is actually launched and his preference is for Saskatchewan to act in conjunction with other provinces.
With direct health care costs related to smoking in Saskatchewan slated at an annual $145 million alone –and indirect costs estimated at around $400 million — the ultimate amount at stake in such a lawsuit could be staggering.
“We’re talking billions and billions of dollars of health-care costs in Canada,” Addley told reporters at the legislature.
Addley said the settlement of a lawsuit brought by state governments in the United States was $245 billion.
British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Manitoba all have similar legislation but only B.C. has actually sued tobacco manufacturers.
Addley suggested a future lawsuit may hinge on the involvement of the Ontario and Quebec governments because of the expense involved and the sheer amount of information that needs to be gathered.
Catherine Doyle, a spokesperson for the country’s largest tobacco manufacturer, Imperial Tobacco Canada, said the company takes the prospect of provincial lawsuits very seriously and will defend itself vigourously.
“Imperial Tobacco Canada legally manufactures a legal product. Governments are senior partners in the industry. They collect overall across Canada 13 times more than the tobacco companies do in profits. They regulate us, they license us to manufacture tobacco products and they collect tax money. Now they just go to implement legislation to sue us. It just seems kind of ironic,” she said in a telephone interview from Montreal.
But Addley said cigarettes kill 1,000 people a year in Saskatchewan and if they were a new product they would be illegal.
However, banning cigarettes now isn’t possible because of the number of people who are addicted across the country and because the government could no longer collect tobacco taxes to offset health costs, he said.
Saskatchewan expects to collect $165 million in tobacco taxes this year.
Anti-smoking groups in Saskatchewan have been urging the government to pass this legislation for at least a year, when the Supreme Court upheld the B.C. law.
Representatives of many of those health organizations were on hand at the provincial legislature Wednesday to praise the government’s action as the bill was given second reading.
Donna Pasiechnik of the Canadian Cancer Society said tobacco companies should pay up after years of bad behavior, including marketing to children, denying the health impact of smoking, using misleading categories such as ‘light’ and ‘mild’ and fighting anti-smoking measures.
“We believe they have caused the tobacco epidemic we’re faced with today and they should pay the damages,” she said.
“(The legislation) now holds the tobacco companies accountable … for the death and destruction that their actions and their products have caused in our province,” added June Blau, president of the Saskatchewan Coalition for Tobacco Reduction.
Saskatchewan Party Health critic Don McMorris said the Opposition also supports the legislation.
“Tobacco costs to the health care system in our province are large, great, huge and to recover some from the tobacco companies would be a good idea,” he told reporters.
That means it could be passed before the legislative session ends in the first week of December.
The tobacco lawsuit legislation follows other anti-smoking initiatives from the NDP government, including a province-wide ban on smoking in public enclosed spaces and a ban on display advertising in areas where there are children
Time to admit faulty data, move on in smoking issue -SK
Oct 17/06
Smoking remains a contentious issue in our city, province and country. However, the “proof” many people believe is a fake.
We’ve become a smoke-free nation because of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report in 1992. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that “EPA’s procedural failure constitutes a violation of law,” that it “cherry picks its data” and “deviated from acceptable scientific procedure … to ensure a preordained outcome.”
The other document that governments and anti-smoking advocates use was produced by the World Health Organization and is called Passive Smoke Does Causes Lung Cancer. However, it states “Our results indicate no association between childhood exposure to second-hand smoke and lung cancer,” and goes on to conclude that for adults the increase to lung cancer in not statically significant.
Organizations such as the Lung Association use the EPA report as the be all and end all. However, even they exaggerate the number in the report which says that “second hand smoke kills 3,000 people per year.” The lung association, basing its projection on a false report, now says second hand smoke kills 50,000 people a year.
I think its time for us to move on, admit that we were bamboozled by politicians and anti-smokers, and allow people to run their businesses as they see fit in a free and democratic society.
Mark A. Soloway
Saskatoon ponders smoking ban at outdoor facilities -SK
August 16, 2006
Saskatoon is looking at extending an existing indoor smoking ban to some outdoor facilities.
Smoking has long been banned inside city buildings, recreation centres and pools, but now the city’s administration and finance committee is proposing extending the ban to all city-run outdoor sports facilities.
City councillor Owen Fortosky says smokers shouldn’t be allowed to light up at places like the Gordie Howe Bowl where the Saskatoon Hilltops football team plays.
Fortosky says it’s particularly important to ban smoking where children are present.
“There are a lot of people who are uncomfortable sitting there watching a football game — where there’s young people playing in particular — and having to sit beside someone that’s first of all not setting a good example by smoking at an athletic facility and, two, blowing the smoke on them or members of their family,” he said.
Hilltops president Cliff David said the organization will support the ban if it’s implemented, but he doesn’t want the Hilltops in charge of enforcing it.
“When we put a function on … it’s all by volunteer help,” he said. “We rent the facilities and for us to have to enforce or police it is not a route we choose to go.”
David said he would also like to see designated smoking areas in the stadium.
Councillors are talking about running the expanded ban past the Saskatoon Health Region, as well as public facilities like Prairieland Park.
The Saskatchewan government’s no-smoking law came into effect last year, banning smoking in bars, restaurants, pool halls and other enclosed public places
City mulls wider ban on smoking -SK
August 15, 2006
Janet French, The StarPhoenix
Janet French, The StarPhoenix
Measure targets seating areas of city-run outdoor sports facilities
City council’s administration and finance committee has asked city administrators to look into the feasibility of banning smoking from the seating areas at all city-run outdoor sports facilities.
The move comes a month after Coun.
Owen Fortosky asked council to prohibit smoking at Gordie Howe Bowl.
When council referred the matter to the committee, Coun. Tiffany Paulsen said although the idea of banishing smokers from spectator stands at civic-run fi elds sounds good in theory, she wonders whether such a rule would set up “some ridiculous line” that would be tricky to enforce.
The committee had two choices before it Monday, should councillors want to stop smoking at outdoor sports facilities.
City solicitor Patti Warwick said they could make a new rule at city-run facilities to stop smoking there, or they could amend the smoking control bylaw to include all outdoor sporting areas.
Such a bylaw would also apply to private operations such as Prairieland Park and the Saskatoon Soccer Centre.
Coun. Bev Dubois said she wasn’t ready to consider a bylaw amendment until the city consulted such private businesses about an extended smoking ban.
Coun. Terry Alm told the committee he was interested in stopping smoking at civic outdoor facilities now and possibly looking at a bylaw in the future.
The committee limited itself to considering a smoking ban at civic-owned parks with seating after agreeing a smoking prohibition at all outdoor city sports venues didn’t make sense.
“It would be impractical, and I think, rather silly, to say you can’t smoke on a golf course,” committee chair Coun. Glen Penner said.
Lynne Lacroix, manager of the leisure services branch, told the committee the city has between 50 and 60 outdoor parks with seating areas.
Cliff David, president of the Saskatoon Hilltops football club, which plays at Gordie Howe Bowl, said the club has mixed feelings about the idea of a smoke-free stadium.
“I don’t mind the stands being smokefree,” David said. “But it’s an outdoor facility and they should have a designated area.” Instead of having to trudge out to the parking lot, patrons should have a place within the park where they can smoke and be able to see the game, he said.
At the Monday committee meeting, Warwick said it would be up to the fi eld or facility renters to ensure patrons aren’t breaking the rules by smoking.
“As a renter of that facility, I don’t like the idea that we’re the ones who have to police it,” David said.
If the city does implement the new rule at some of its outdoor venues, David said it should be universal and shouldn’t “pick on” Gordie Howe Bowl alone.
Coun. Myles Heidt also said he was worried about the effect a smoking prohibition would have on non-profi t groups who rent civic facilities for events such as national and international baseball tournaments and rely on beer garden profi ts to break even.
Several councillors also raised the prospect of the Saskatoon Health Region enforcing any new bylaw amendment that would prohibit smoking at all outdoor venues, since it already enforces the smoking ban in bars and restaurants.
A health region spokesperson said Monday no one could say whether health inspectors would be willing to add trips to outdoor stadiums and fi elds to their checklist.
Smoking Ban Debate Smolders In S’toon
July 28th, 2006
The debate continues to smolder over the smoking bylaw in Saskatoon.
A year and a half later, and patrons are still lighting up on the patio at Peter D’s.
Peter Danabassis, the owner, says his staff are instructed to not allow smoking, even though he doesn’t like the civic-side of the bylaw.
While he maintains smoking is not allowed on his patio, patrons claim otherwise.
Rod English Reporting.
Read
Read
Smoking Ban Not in the Offing
May 31, 2006
Vanese M. Ferguson
Vanese M. Ferguson
Saskatchewan’s Labour Minister claims the vast majority of workplaces in the province are smoke free although he admits there is work to do. And David Forbes points out that the Occupational Health and Safety Council brought down regulations about 10 years ago which necessitated smoking rooms in workplaces.
For groups like the Canadian Cancer Society, that’s not enough. A coalition in Saskatchewan wants to see regulations enacted which completely ban smoking indoors in the workplace. And they were hoping those regulations would be brought forward by May 31st which is world No Tobacco Day.
David Forbes says he can’t give any timeline on when those regulations may be brought forward. He says his office is reviewing 200 suggested regulation changes which were submitted to the minister this year after the Occupational Health and Safety Council conducted its five year review.
Forbes says if they do procede with regulation changes then there will need to be discussions with stakeholders like employers and employee groups that would be affected.
The Canadian Cancer Society recently conducted a survey of 67 hundred people in Saskatchewan and they say 85 percent of respondents support a smoking ban indoors at all workplaces. (VMF)
