Winnipeg to draft bylaw banning hookah use in businesses, on patios

The City of Winnipeg is considering an outright ban on hookah lounges, upping the ante from an earlier push to regulate shisha smoking in restaurants, bars and private clubs.

City council's community services committee voted unanimously on Monday to ask city staff to draft a bylaw banning the use of the water pipes inside businesses and on their patios.

Committee chair Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) authored the motion, which now heads to executive policy committee, and ultimately city council as a whole, in December.

Duncan said two decades after Winnipeg banned smoking tobacco indoors — the Manitoba capital was the first Canadian city to do so, in 2003 — there's no place for indoor smoking of any sort, whether or not the combustible substance contains nicotine.

Some hookah products have a molasses base and do not contain tobacco.

"We need to prioritize health over the consumption of any type of smoking products. So that's what we're doing here today," Duncan said in a scrum at city hall.

Duncan made his motion 10 months after Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy raised the idea of regulating hookah lounges, citing the potential danger of high carbon monoxide levels emanating from shisha pipes.

In 2022, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service ordered two hookah lounges closed and aired them out after detecting carbon monoxide levels in excess of Manitoba's of 25 parts per million over one hour.

Gilroy's motion led to a report that found Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina and Toronto do not permit the smoking of hookah pipes at businesses — but made no recommendations to city council about hookah regulations for Winnipeg.

Duncan said it's time to close any remaining loopholes that allow indoor smoking.

The manager of two Winnipeg hookah lounges declined comment, requesting more time to discuss the city motion with other hookah lounge proprietors.

Most Winnipeg hookah lounges are run by newcomers from the Middle East and North Africa, where the smoking of shisha — either with or without tobacco — serves the same social function as bars that serve alcohol in other cultures.

Cigar lounges could also be phased out

Duncan said he is not concerned the city motion could be perceived as singling out newcomers or specific ethnic communities. He said he is open to a total indoor smoking ban, regardless of the combustible substance in question.

That could affect indoor cigar lounges, which are allowed to operate in Manitoba under an exception to the Smoking and Vapour Products Control Act.

"I think that definitely needs to be looked at to see if it's something that as a society we're on board with, still," Duncan said. "Are we going to allow people to smoke inside or are we not?"

According to the province, at least two Winnipeg cigar retailers are allowed to operate cigar smoking lounges under this exception, provided the lounges are fully enclosed and have separate ventilation systems.

There is also at least one private club in Winnipeg with a cigar lounge. Managers with that club and one of the private cigar shops declined comment.

Duncan said any businesses that would be affected by a new bylaw would have the chance to address council.

"Obviously this bylaw is not going to come out tomorrow," he said. "They're going to have their voices heard."