If casinos are allowed to build outdoor smoking shelters for their patrons, why can't bars and restaurants do the same thing?

That's the question being leveled at the Ontario government by restaurateurs, Conservative and NDP critics, and lobby groups.

The province, which confirmed it would allow government-owned casinos in Windsor and Niagara Falls to build the special smoking shelters even though other establishments are barred from doing so, reasons that casinos aren't covered by the same rules because their main business isn't serving food or alcohol.

"We do allow offices and factories and other organizations that are not in the food or beverage business the right to construct these shelters," Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson said.

"Their (casinos) primary business is not food and beverage -- it's gambling."

The Smoke Free Ontario Act became law last June, angering bar owners and restaurateurs who felt it would have a devastating effect on their business.

The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) claims the restaurant/bar industry lost about $21 million in the first five months of the smoking ban.

"Since the smoking ban in the summer through to December, my sales were down seven percent and that equates to about a 40 percent loss in profit," Tim Broughton, owner of C'est What? at Front and Church, explained.

A few years ago, he spent about $250,000 building a designated smoke room in his establishment and then had to spend even more to convert it back.

"Clearly the Ontario government has recognized the severe economic impact of its decision to ban smoking. It now needs to move immediately to allow smoking shelters in the rest of the hospitality industry, not just look after its own declining casino revenues," CRFA's Executive Vice President, Michael Ferrabee, said Wednesday.

Conservative finance critic Tim Hudak called Watson's logic in allowing casinos but not restaurants to build shelters "horse feathers."

"This is the ultimate in hypocrisy: the government has created a windfall for government-owned casinos, but changed the rules for every other private business," he said.

The Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco also attacked the plan, with spokesman Michael Perley contending bars, restaurants and casinos are "all in the hospitality sector."

"The bottom line is these shelters being available to the casinos violates the intent of the act as we understood it, and they should be gotten rid of," he argued.

NDP health critic Shelly Martel also slammed the plan, saying, "The perception is that government is doing something to benefit itself at the expense of others who cannot do the same thing."

Watson says the smoking ban was enacted in part to protect employees from second-hand smoke exposure. He added that casino employees wouldn't have to enter the smoking shelters.

"The areas in question at the casino do not require employees to go into those areas," he said.

"That's the whole reason we wouldn't allow smoking lounges or designated smoking rooms in restaurants."

Watson rejected suggestions the government was bending the rules for casinos.

For a look at the province's smoking law, click here (PDF).

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