By Cathy Chung
The owner of a Bank Street pool hall says he may have to shut down as a result of the largest series of fines yet under Ottawa’s smoking bylaw.
“They’ve taken my business, a three-quarters of a million dollar business, and they’ve made it worthless,” says Richard Teahen, owner of the Cue ‘N Cushion Billiards & Bar. “They used me as an example.”
Teahen was recently convicted of 19 violations of the bylaw and ordered to pay a fine of more than $30,000.
“We’re going to try and manage,” he says, “and if we can’t, we shut things down.”
The large fine was a result of a number of charges instead of a single charge, says Andrew Skaling, a spokesperson for the City of Ottawa.
“As to why it’s very high, that’s the court’s decision,” Skaling adds.
Teahen’s lawyer, Gary Chayko, says they will likely file an appeal of the conviction and the sentence. He says his client made legal choices based on available information.
“Unfortunately those choices have been deemed to be wrong, and notwithstanding his honest and best efforts, the justice of the peace has chosen to fine him what can only be described, in my view, as a crippling fine.”
The pool hall had been operating as a private club, and with volunteers instead of employees, under the interpretation that smoking would be permitted.
“The problem is to find out what the city believes a private club is without taking you to court and making you spend all your money,” Teahen says, “because the city hasn’t issued guidelines.”
According to Barry McKay, general manager of the Pub and Bar Coalition (PUBCO), several municipalities in Ontario have bylaws for the establishment of private clubs. PUBCO is an Ottawa-based organization made up of businesses opposed to Ottawa’s smoking bylaw.
“I guess what we’ll have to be guided by if we go down this road [of creating private clubs] is to look at what other municipalities have done and see if anyone wants to test the water,” says McKay.
He adds that, for example, Oakville’s guidelines for private clubs include annual membership fees, annually elected leadership, constitutional bylaws to govern the club, and non-profit status.
Teahen did meet some of those guidelines, such as an annual membership fee. He is sure he would be able to attract enough members to support a private club.
“We had 10,000 members [while operating as a private club] of which 4,000 were really active,” he says.
Emma King was one of those members. She is still a frequent patron now that the Cue ‘N Cushion once again prohibits smoking.
“I’d be ticked off if it closed,” King says. She would probably not go to another pool hall.
Teahen says his business has been down about 60 per cent since the smoking ban was implemented.
Erika Scrivens, another patron, thinks there should be both smoking and non-smoking establishments in Ottawa.
“Restaurants where families go should be non-smoking,” she says. “The owner should be able to decide if smoking is allowed.”