For Whitehorse bar owners, it's like the city is taking away something given to them in looking at revisiting the smoking bylaw, says the owner of the Town and Mountain Hotel.

'We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more,' Barre Fleming said during an interview Tuesday afternoon at his Main Street business.

Fleming said he wouldn't have spent more than $2 million to renovate the hotel over the past 2 1/2 years if he had known the city was going to implement a smoking ban.

'I would have just toughed it out and I would have done whatever regular maintenance had to be done, but I wouldn't have spent that amount of money if I knew something was going to impact my business as severely as we think it's going to impact,' he said.

Part of those renovations included installing a $60,000-exhaust system to deal with smoke.

Last year, the city changed the bylaw, banning smoking in all public places. With the exception of bars, the ban came into effect on Jan. 1.

Since then, restaurant owners have complained they're losing business as their customers head to bars instead so they can smoke. The restaurateurs are calling on council for a level playing field.

Coun. Bev Buckway is planning to bring forward a motion next week that would see the city revisit the bylaw.

'We thought we were hijacked the first time around, and we're getting the impression, we think we're being hijacked the second time around,' Fleming said.

The city is looking at options that include changing the bylaw so bars would have to be smoke-free until 9 p.m. for the rest of the year until the total ban next January.

A hotelier in the Yukon for 26 years, Fleming pointed out the hotels had actually proposed the 9 p.m.-non-smoking deadline last year when the bylaw first came forward.

'They rejected that outright,' he said. 'So why they're revisiting it now, I don't know.'

He argued the city is bowing too much to pressure.

Heather McIntyre, general manager of the Westmark Whitehorse hotel, believes the 9 p.m.-deadline may work. Only time will tell how the smoking bylaw will impact business, she said.

'It might be a great compromise,' McIntyre said this morning of being smoke-free until 9 p.m.

She noted as long as the rules are the same for everyone, they could work.

At the Westmark, there hasn't been a noticeable decrease in restaurant business since Jan. 1. McIntyre, however, said she's seen more smokers patronizing the bar during the lunch hour.

Fleming argued the bars have already given their position to the city when they made their presentation to council last year.

'What we don't want to do is have to go and defend ourselves again,' he said. 'We defended ourselves once; we gave our position. It was clearly accepted.'

For Fleming, there's never been a 'level playing field' between bars and restaurants.

'To get a cocktail lounge licence in the city of Whitehorse, you have to build 30 rooms, you have to own the property and you have to own the land,' he said. 'Every one of these restaurants that's complaining now don't own the property and they don't own the land and they can walk away from a lease just like that.'

On average, to build 30 rooms and buy the land it would cost approximately $2 million, he said.

'That's before you even get the cocktail lounge licence.'

Fleming estimated approximately 80 per cent of regular bar customers are smokers.

'Some only smoke when they come to bars, some only smoke after they've had a couple of drinks and I have staff that only smoke when they work,' he said.

The difference between bars and restaurants are significant, Fleming continued. People will go out for a meal for an hour or hour and a half and not have a cigarette.

Customers come to bars for longer periods of time. For many, it's more of an evening out where they get a babysitter and listen to the band at the bar and dance.

Fleming noted the hotels all have restaurants as well as bars. He and other hotel owners had no problem with the smoking ban in restaurants because many owners have children.

'And we believe no child should be subjected to any kind of smoke that they have no control over,' he said.

At the Westmark, the smoking ban has meant not having to limit the area for non-smokers.

Fleming pointed out when the smoking ban was first proposed last summer, there wasn't any mention that bars would be included.

After receiving support for the bylaw, council brought forward an amendment to the original proposal so that all public places throughout the city would fall under the ban.

'They promptly ambushed us,' he said.

Fleming noted the hotels did their homework and most municipalities with a similar ban had an extended period of time to implement the bylaw.

'People knew five to seven years in advance that this was coming down the pipe,' he said.

Hoteliers in the city accepted the one-year grace period for bars. While hoteliers met with city council privately when the ban was first considered, Fleming noted there weren't any backroom deals being made. The hoteliers wanted to express concerns individually, he said, citing financial information given to council they didn't want made public.

Some restaurant owners have complained about bars serving breakfast and permitting customers to smoke.

Under the Liquor Act, bars can serve breakfast, Fleming explained.

At that time though, the bar isn't permitted to serve alcohol and is considered a restaurant, which means that under the bylaw, smoking isn't allowed.

He noted that was what initially had some restaurant owners angry. While the Town & Mountain wasn't allowing it, restaurants lost their morning coffee crowd because bars were permitting people to smoke, he said.

'That's what initially got the restaurateurs mad, that we were competing with them unfairly,' he said. 'And I concur. That should never have happened.'

He pointed out that issue has been addressed and bars serving breakfast are no longer allowing customers to smoke.

At the Town & Mountain, Fleming has noticed more of the 3 p.m.-coffee crowd in the bar.

'I always got the smokers for lunch because I think maybe they felt a little more comfortable.'

Whenever the smoking ban comes into effect for bars, there could be numerous problems, Fleming said.

Under the bylaw, bar workers are expected to enforce the rules.

'I'm not going to endanger my staff,' Fleming said.

Another problem could be the tourists who see crowds standing outside bars smoking, he noted.