Last week, the Ontario Government announced it would allow roofed shelters for smokers at its casinos while the same roofed shelters would be banned at bars and restaurants.

The McGuinty Government initiative certainly caught Ontario residents by surprise. In fact, a diverse collection of anti-smoking groups, smokers' rights groups, and small business associations came together to harshly criticize the casino smoking shelters.

The negative reaction, however, should come as no surprise. Effectively, the McGuinty Government created a special rule for casinos that had never been publicly discussed.

The casino loophole represents the kind of double standard that justifiably drives taxpayers crazy - one rule to advantage government owned casinos, another rule for privately owned businesses and Legion Halls.

To make matters worse, the government is spending some $2.3 million on its Casino Windsor smoking shelter alone. That's hardly a ramshackle to keep smoking patrons - it's a multi-million dollar Dalton McGuinty smokers' Palace!

The ban on roofed smoking shelters was part of the Smoke Free Ontario Act. The Act, which came into effect last June, was based on an admirable premise: to protect the public from second-hand smoke, discourage smoking and create more smoke-free environments. At the time, criticism of the Act focused on the lack of a plan to support Legion Halls and the hospitality sector who had already been hit hard by a variety of challenges including higher costs, reduced tourism, and barriers at the U.S border including new passport requirements. Initiatives to reduce smoking were broadly supported in the Ontario Legislature. However, little did we know that a plan to exempt casinos was lurking behind closed doors.

When speaking about the smoking ban's impact on casino revenue, Premier Dalton McGuinty said, "quite apart from the economic aspects of this, we think that the health of Ontarians has to come first." [Canadian Press, January 30, 2006]. We now discover that Premier McGuinty's insatiable appetite for more revenue has once again trumped his promises to taxpayers.

No doubt, casinos and racetrack slots are major employers with significant impacts on surrounding economies. They also generate massive funds for the provincial treasury, contributing $1.1 billion last year.

However, if the government was truly committed to the Smoke Free Ontario Act, it would ban covered smoking shelters at casinos as well. If the government was concerned about the impact of the smoking ban on the hospitality sector, it would give the same options to bars, restaurants, and Legion Halls it has granted its casinos.

Either way, the playing field should be level. Otherwise, the McGuinty Smokers' Palaces will stand as million dollar monuments to government hypocrisy.

Contact:

Tim Hudak
416-325-8454