Re: Article “City toughens anti-tobacco rules,” which appeared in the Jan. 16 edition of Northern Life.
I do understand banning smoking from city parks where children play, because let’s face it, who wants to allow their kid to run through smoke or pick up cigarette butts?
What I don’t understand is why Sudbury is trying to basically force out smoking. I understand the health benefits aren’t the best, but it’s the person’s choice whether they smoke or not.
At this point, they are trying to force people to quit smoking, which is not right. Also, banning smoking on patios is going to be a huge profit loss for businesses. I don’t think council understands this.
Most customers that attend bars enjoy having a smoke while they’re drinking. With events such as Halloween and New Year’s, you are not allowed to leave once you pay to go in.
What person is going to want to pay to go into a bar and then not be allowed re-entry because they want a smoke? This is causing profit loss for bars on drinks and admissions.
This also causes losses to the city for taxes they collect from these businesses.
Rather than smoking, I think our city should be focusing on more important issues, such as housing, opening up more jobs or the millions of other things that are issues in this town.
Nicole Gruber
Greater Sudbury