As of May 26, a new provision in the law against smoking will prohibit the use of tobacco and electronic cigarettes on terraces in Quebec.
Later in the fall, November 26, the law will ban smoking within a nine-meter radius of any door and window communicating with an enclosed area on private property. In addition, no ashtray should be in this perimeter. This last aspect is particularly horrifying Antoine Paquet, co-owner of the Cactus Resto-Bar in Victoriaville. "This is where the shoe pinches. Removing ashtrays will cause many smokers to throw their butts on the groundhe laments. PHowever, an ashtray does not encourage smoking, but allows you to put butts in it.»
In addition, Antoine Paquet believes that preventing people from smoking on the sidewalk, outside the terrace, will be difficult, even unmanageable. "Smoke pedestrian passing by the Cactus will be illegalHe notes.
To respect the prescribed nine meters, smokers will have to meet at their neighbors, the Kia dealership and the hairdressing salon. The businessman wonders how it will turn out, for example, on rue Saint-Denis in Montreal or on Grande-Allée in Quebec, when the terraces are very close to each other.
Himself a non-smoker, Antoine Paquet has nothing against the imposed measure and his establishment will adapt as it did a few years ago with the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. "The first winter, he recalls, we had recorded a slight decrease in the number of customers. This time around we expect a small decrease again, although we might as well attract other people that the smoke keeps away.»
Source : lanouvelle.net
