Smoking ban on hold

The Health Board Appeal and Review Board will decide by late March or early April if the orders and fines being issued by the Northwestern Health Unit to area businesses for failing to comply with a smoking ban must be obeyed.
The health unit began issuing cease-and-desist orders in January, and has since brought non-compliance complaints against numerous businesses throughout the Kenora-Rainy River districts.
These complaints carry with them the threat of fines up to $5,000 per day.
But since then, a number of businesses have appealed these orders and were issued a temporary stay.
The board met in Thunder Bay last Thursday with a group representing the “Freedom of Choice Coalition”—a group of area businesses that have joined forces to fight the orders—and members of the health unit, including environmental team leader Bill Limerick and CEO Dr. Pete Sarsfield.
Both groups were accompanied by their lawyers.
The purpose of the meeting was to determine whether the temporary stay would become permanent. The board deferred its decision until Friday, and then elected to extend the stay until a permanent decision is reached at a later date.
Denise Pelletier, co-owner of Ted’s Restaurant in Kenora and a member of the coalition, said the board’s decision means she will continue as she has since winning the initial stay.
“This is very much a victory,” said Pelletier, adding the coalition, which initially numbered eight area businesses has now expanded to more than 40.
“We went down [to Thunder Bay] on Thursday with a group of about 60 people.”
Pelletier said their resistance movement is gaining momentum, and she is optimistic it will put up a formidable defence when the appeal finally is heard, probably in Toronto.
For the health unit, the decision was seen as a minor setback.
“Of course we’re disappointed, but the appeal hearing is the real guts of the matter,” Limerick said from his office in Kenora.
The health unit still was issuing the notices as recently as Thursday, but Limerick said he won’t decide whether to continue until he sees the official written ruling of the meeting later this week.