Four municipalities do the right thing, but Alberta still needs province-wide workplace smoking ban: MacLennan
EDMONTON – Strong anti-smoking bylaws that come into effect tomorrow in St. Albert, Edmonton, Stettler and Airdrie should remind Albertans that our province still needs an effective province-wide workplace smoking ban, says the president of the province’s largest union.
“The health of our citizens shouldn’t be more important in St. Albert or Stettler than in Stony Plain or Sundre,” Alberta Union of Provincial Employees President Dan MacLennan.
“These municipalities deserve our praise, but Albertans all deserve a fair, equally enforced province-wide smoking ban that covers all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and bingo halls,” MacLennan said.
AUPE was disappointed with the so-called Smoke-Free Places Act, watered-down legislation that will have the effect of entrenching smoking in many workplaces, which received Royal Assent on May 10, MacLennan said.
But even that weak piece of legislation has yet to be proclaimed, he noted.
“As it is now written, this legislation gives business operators free reign to force their employees to breathe second-hand smoke simply by saying minors are not allowed,” MacLennan said. “As we said at the time it was passed, it’s a step backward, and will have the opposite effect to what the government claims by delaying a full ban.”
As passed by the Legislature, MacLennan warned, the act will not protect workers in designated workplaces from the proven ill effects of second-hand smoke, and will also do nothing to protect employers and taxpayers from the huge potential cost of lawsuits by workers injured or killed by second-hand smoke and their families. He said the act as written will also contribute to rising health care costs.
MacLennan promised that AUPE would continue to fight for a full province-wide ban on smoking in all workplaces.
“Albertans deserve to have their health protected by law wherever they live and work, and however old they are,” he said. “Their lungs shouldn’t be less worthy of protection depending on their postal code.”
MacLennan continues to urge AUPE members to contact their MLAs to encourage them to support a full province-wide workplace smoking ban. Contact information on all Members of the Legislative Assembly can be found at the Legislature’s Website – www.assembly.ab.ca.
For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780—930-3301 or 780-232-8392 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)