A city council decision to extend restrictions on tobacco smoking in waterpipes has a lot of hookah lounge owners in the city worried about their future.
The City of Edmonton’s council of community and public service announcements voted to extend a regulation last week that could all but ruin business for Mazen Hajar, the owner of Cassablanca Hookah Lounge said.
Hajar worked in Fort McMurray for about 10 years before he opened Casablanca five years ago.
“It's a place for cheap entertainment. Instead of going to a bar and spending that money [at a bar], people come here. They spend 20 bucks and they have a good time at night. There is good music. People come here after school, they study.”
But with the possible restrictions that an estimated 44 bars around the city could be facing, Hajar is worried that it will all come to an end.
“[I’m] upset, disappointed, shocked. All of our hard work, everything just gone or possibly gone.”
City councillor Scott McKeen believes the businesses can survive without having shisha be a part of it. Hajar isn’t so certain.
“They aren’t looking at the big picture of all these people: the employees they have, the families they have and everything they have that they’re going to lose, too. Not just us owners – it’s our staff and everything else.”
Hajar said even his customers – the majority he knows by their first name – are upset about the proposed changes.
“A lot of them are shocked and disappointed. We just tell them we’re working on it and hope for the best.”
This isn’t the first time that restrictions on shisha have been attempted in Edmonton. The province looked into banning shisha smoking at restaurants after Dr. James Talbot, Alberta’s chief medical officer at the time, released a report about its possible health hazards.
“We thought this thing was all over years ago and then all of the sudden, just like that, it reappeared again,” he said.
As of now, only tobacco-free shisha can be smoked in hookah lounges.
Hajar believes second-hand smoke complaints and violent incidents are also to blame for the renewed interest in banning waterpipes.
“Everybody has incidents at their place. In the five years we've been here, we've had less than a handful of incidents that have ever happened here. The police have maybe been called here once or twice in five years.
“There are no problems here; we have a security guard. Everybody that comes here knows everybody here. Everybody’s friends with everybody, people meet people here,” he said.
Casablanca only allows in people over the age of 18 and doesn’t serve alcohol. Hajar said many of the hookah lounges in the city have the same guidelines.
Hajar’s life savings are in Casablanca and if he has to stop selling shisha, his main attraction, it will likely be the end for him.
“I close the door, I lock it and I walk out and I leave. There's nothing else left for me here.”
He said he is willing to meet the city in the middle on this issue but that he has no plans to approach them and is waiting to see what happens next.
The final decision will be made in October.
With files from Nahreman Issa
