INUVIK - If you're a patron of the Mad Trapper and you smoke, you're being asked to do so at the side of the building, away from passersby.

Concerned mother Mary Jane McDonald wants to keep the sidewalk clear of smokers, for the sake of young children.

Complaints have been made about people loitering and smoking in front of the Mad Trapper bar. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

"I'm concerned that those people who smoke might be a bad role model for the youth," said McDonald.

"An intoxicated person might flick a cigarette into a child's eye."

McDonald said that an intoxicated person might also be angry for some reason and start a fight with someone.

"I'm worried because you pretty much have to walk by Trapper's to get from store to store," she said.

"There are always people hanging around outside the Trapper."

McDonald said that it looks bad for the sober people walking by to deal with intoxicated people in the street.

"A lot of people walk by the bar, it's right beside the bank," said McDonald.

"They can swear all they want, it just shouldn't be where children have to hear it as well."

McDonald wants town council to look at the issue, and to do something to remedy the loiterers.

Mayor Derek Lindsay said there is nothing that can be done about the matter from a municipal standpoint.

"There is nothing the town can do about people smoking other than ask the people to take it off the street," said Lindsay.

McDonald said that the Trapper traffic affects the impression the town makes on tourists.

"I don't think those people came to Inuvik to see drunken people on the street," said McDonald.

"It's not always cigarettes that they are smoking, it's other things too."

Trapper manager Rick Adams said he is going to put an ash tray and bench around the side of the bar, to bring people off the sidewalk.

"I understand the concern about the traffic in front of the bar," said Adams.

"I have been asking people to smoke at the side of the building."