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The report called it “the importance of role modelling a smoke-free lifestyle.”

Ultimately, implementing the whole battery of recommendations would require changes to two municipal codes, as well as a provincial change to the Smoke Free Ontario Act.

Although the measures enjoyed blanket support from health professionals, they garnered strict condemnation from a cross-section of the city’s restaurateurs.

“In their view, the status quo provides operators and customers with flexibility to smoke or not smoke as desired,” reads the notes to a series of public consultation on the proposed measures.

Roughly 1,000 patios would be affected by the change, including Toronto’s 705 “boulevard cafes.”

The restaurant sector, which was represented by the likes of The Longest Yard, Whistler’s Grille and the Artful Dodger Pub, also noted the apparent hypocrisy of cracking down on cigarette smoke while patio patrons continue to inhale exhaust fumes from idling cars.

A focus group of smokers themselves also objected to the measures, saying that “smoking zones are already sufficiently limited.”

Only 13 years ago, Toronto’s smokers were free to light up in all manner of drinking, food and entertainment venues.

In the years since, however, a steady ratcheting-up of anti-smoking laws has banished cigarettes from bars, restaurants, designated smoking rooms and even in private vehicles carrying children.

Smoking zones are already sufficiently limited

Despite this, Toronto is among the last of Canada’s major urban centres to allow patio smoking.

Patio smoking bans made their Canadian debut in 2003 in Kingston. In the years since, the list has grown to include Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., the Yukon Territory, and most of Metro Vancouver.

As of 2013, Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba and the GTA stood firm as the most prominent holdouts on patio-smoking bans, although together they represent more than three-quarters of the total Canadian population.

National Post

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