Pub owner fuming over smoking ban

By Scott TrudeauSunday, November 5, 2006 http://www.pentictonherald.ca/article_2363.php
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell’s intention to ban smoking in most public places by 2008 has a Penticton pub owner fired up.Tim Coy, owner of Decoy’s Tavern on Martin Street, believes the ban violates people’s personal freedoms.“As adults, we should be able to choose what we do with ourselves in regards to our own health.“You have cars driving up and down the roads, polluting the air; there’s so many different issues you can go on.”The premier announced plans for the ban in an address Saturday to B.C. Liberal Party delegates, who are meeting in Penticton this weekend.“We just spent a lot of money building a smoking room, and they’re (government) not going to be willing to compensate us for our expenditures on that,” said Coy.The smoking room at Decoy’s was designed to ensure cigarette smoke is confined to one area so it won’t affect customers who don’t smoke, and Coy said it has kept his business alive.“There’s a lot of smokers that have nowhere else to smoke,” said Coy. “They don’t smoke at home anymore. Maybe some of them don’t smoke in their cars.“One haven for people to smoke is to go to a bar where they can sit inside or on the patio and enjoy a cigarette.”Coy pointed out tobacco remains a legal substance “that the government makes huge taxes on.”“That pays for any illnesses that those people (smokers) ever have, because we pay other taxes as well. . . . So if they want to use that excuse of us getting sick, well, we’ve already paid for it, and if they assume that we’re going to die young, then they’re saving money there anyway.”Coy said the ban will undoubtedly have a negative impact on bars and pubs across the province, including his own.At least one customer agrees.Peter Proulx, a regular at Decoy’s, said it’s nice to be able to have a beer and a smoke at the tavern with his friends.“This place has smoking and non-smoking areas, and that’s the way it should be,” he said.“To be perfectly honest, if I can’t sit here and smoke, I’ll be at home.”Another customer, Mark Ludington, also a smoker, doesn’t care about the ban because he’s used to having to smoke outside.“I go to San Diego. Everybody smokes outside (there),” he said.