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Times Colonist Newspaper

OPEN LETTER

TO THE

Capital Regional District Board of Directors

AND

Municipal Councils within the Capital Region

July 1999

The contents of this letter are endorsed by the businesses, associations and individuals listed below. Our goal is to suggest a positive solution to the current controversy surrounding the implementation and attempted enforcement of the CRD's Clean Air Bylaw.

After six months this Bylaw has achieved some important and positive benchmarks. Residents and visitors to Greater Victoria now have more choices than ever before to patronize businesses that offer a smoke free environment.

» Many restaurants, pubs, bars, private clubs and charitable gaming establishments have chosen to cater to non-smoking customers.

» Others have invested time and money to accommodate their smoking customers in improved and comfortable semi outdoor environments.

» Prior to the implementation of the Bylaw, several hospitality businesses and long-term care facilities invested literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve their indoor air quality where smokers and non-smokers could socialize.

On the Provincial scene, the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) is meeting with representatives of BC's hospitality industry to determine what is a safe air quality level. Hospitality workers in British Columbia, including the Capital Region will be protected by new regulations that measure air quality.

So if the WCB is there to protect workers and are applying themselves to that task, if the vast majority of restaurants, several bars, pubs, and gaming establishments are smoke free, why the controversy? Twenty-five percent of our adult population are regular tobacco users and considering the fact that tobacco is a legal revenue generating store-bought product it is little wonder that some businesses cater to these potential customers. Trying to enforce a smoking ban in businesses that cater to patrons using a legal product has been a predictable and expensive failure. Where there has been successful compliance to this Bylaw it has been voluntary.

Now the CRD, through threatened court action, is on the verge of forcing the probable shut down of more than thirty valuable Capital Region businesses. These businesses represent hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars. In the Capital Region we have a successful level of voluntary compliance with the CRD Clean Air Bylaw. The choice is out there. The WCB is mandated to protect workers. Please accept the victory.

There is nothing to suggest that this level of voluntary compliance will not continue. In these tough, uncertain political and economic times we should not be shutting down businesses because the unenforceable has proven exactly that. The undersigned are asking the CRD Board of Directors to instruct The Capital Health Region to accept the level of voluntary compliance to the Clean Air Bylaw and direct their energies towards assisting in a Clean Air Solution. A ventilation solution that helps build the economy and create jobs, not tear it down and put people on the bread line.

Signed:

Hotel Association of Canada; Canadian Restaurant & Foodservices Association; Neighbourhood Pub Owner's Association of BC; Victoria Freedom of Choice Coalition; Horizon West Hotel; Local 850 Canadian Union of Postal Workers; Sidney Travelodge; Charles Dickens Pub; Oak Bay Marine Group, Collections by 5th Avenue; Esquimalt Inn; Red Lion Inn; Ingraham Hotel; Six Mile Pub; Q-Ball Billiards; Sannich Tuff Turf; Lim Lease Ltd.; Madison Avenue; Designers International; Liberty Cafe; Vancouver Island Breweries; Pacific Western Breweries; Gorge Point Pub; Il Greco Restaurant; Oak Bay Stylists for Men; Mega Screen Productions; Thursday's Sports Bar; Strathcona Hotel; Alfred the Flower Man; Scott's Restaurant; Country Rose Pub; Capital Steak House; Esquimalt Legion; Blues House; Hugo's, Flying Beagle Pub; The Karoake Club; Hobby Beer & Wines; Jay Kay Consulting; Ensign Travel; Tally-Ho Hotel; Sooke River Hotel; Victoria Vacuums West; ADS Leasing; KLM Leasing; Elephant & Castle Restaurant; Log House Pub; Buff's Pub; Prowash Painters; Axis Nightclub; Cherry Bank Hotel; PCI Computers; On the Spot Karoake; MD Evans & Assoc.; Smugglers Cove Pub; Rum Runners Pub; Old Bailey Pub; Douglas Hotel; In Harmony With Color Ltd.; The Morning Shop; Monkey Tree Pub; The Art of Man Creations; Flynn Printing; Barclays' Steak House; Eurosa Gardens; Royal Canadian Legion Br. #54-Sooke; DLD Vending; Claybrook Enterprises; Cool Change DJ Services; T Louis Foods; Fergies Sports Bar; Basic to Basic Marketing; AAMCO Transmissions; Partings Hair Design Inc.; Envirotech Cedar Roofs; Selkirk Pub; Goose & Trestle Restaurant; Ralph's Automatic Coin; Ganloff Enterprises; Red Lion Inn; Allready Painting; Village Card Shop; San Remos Restaurant; Lloyd Parker Landscaping & Design; Victoria Chem Dry; Mr. Tubbs Ice Cream; D&B Construction; Cowichan Bay Contracting; Coastal Tree Fallers & Contracting; K&M Enterprises; Hendry Swinton McKenzie Insurance; EZE Brew Coffee; Villa Rosa Restaurant; Reggies Restaurant; Stone Hill Development Ltd.; Arland's Barber Shop; Mamma Maria Landscaping; Gladstone Properties; George N Dragon; ICI Glidden Ltd.; Stones Jewellers; Sarby Furs; Boom Lake Electrical; Laser Star Music; The Limit Night Club; Theo's Place; TAL Developments; Pro Shop Sound.

Let the CRD Board of Directors know what you think.

Tel: (250) 360-3000, Fax: (250) 360-3023

Geoff Young - Victoria; Don Amos - Sidney; John Bergbusch - Colwood; Diane Bernard - Sooke; Denise Blackwell - Langford; Kelly Booth - Salt Spring Island; Bill Camden - View Royal; Jacques Campbell - Outer Gulf Islands; Christopher Causton - Oak Bay; Bob Cross - Victoria; John Garrison - Saanich; Wayne Hunter - Central Saanich; James King - Equimalt; Frank Leonard - Saanich; David McLean - Victoria; Bob McMinn - Highlands; Linda Michaluk - North Saanich; Shiela Orr - Saanich; Bob Gillespie - Saanich; John Ranns - Metchosin; Larry West - Langford; Ray Williams - Saanich.