Nathalie St. Pierre enjoys a cigarette over her lunch break outside Centre Square Mall. Smoking in the workplace may be a thing of the past when city council reviews the smoking bylaw early next year. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

City council amended its smoking bylaw at a special meeting held last Thursday, moving up by almost two years its total smoking ban for restaurants, dining rooms, clubs, private recreational facilities, and canteens, from the original scheduled date on Jan. 1, 2005.

Only Coun. Alan Woytuik remains opposed to the amendment, having said he would prefer some restaurants be given the option to allow smoking.

Councillors will now look at extending the ban in the new year to include pubs, taxis, bus shelters, and the workplace.

Even though jurisdiction over occupational health and safety belongs to the Workers' Compensation Board, Coun. Blake Lyons said the city may want to take the lead.

"If it's in the workplace I think the city can move in there... If we make it a public health issue," said Lyons.

Lyons said he has spoken to anti-smoking lobbyists who had some interesting suggestions to make the workplace transition from smoking to smoke-free a little easier.

"They were looking at the idea of having some smoking shelters, I think it was in Ottawa," said Lyons. "It sounded something like a bus stop, except the smokers congregate in there.

"It gives them some protection from the elements but at the same time they smoke outside of their office and where the public normally wouldn't be."

Coun. Dave McCann said council will have to weigh the issue of smoking in bars carefully.

"If you're drinking, you're the age of majority, so there's an element there of people going to a place where they know there will be smoke and putting up with it because it's the best place to go," said McCann.

Jeff Beier, owner of Jose Loco's -- a Mexican-style lounge on Franklin Ave. -- warned that a ban on smoking in nightclubs and cocktail lounges would have a devastating effect on the industry.

"I think it would be a death knell for the local bar scene. I think you'd see a minimum of half of them close," said Beier.

Beier pointed to the difficulties faced by nightclubs in Vancouver and Toronto when similar bans were imposed, and later rescinded.

"But not before it destroyed countless lives," Beier continued. "and I don't mean just businesses, I mean lives because people lost their jobs, kids went hungry because there were huge lay-offs."