Public health officials should consider establishing designated smoking areas as they craft a bylaw to ban smoking in parks, playgrounds and public squares, say Victoria councillors.
Officials are gathering information while they prepare amendments to the Capital Regional District’s Clean Air Bylaw. The planned amendments include not only a ban on smoking in parks and public squares, but an expansion of the buffer zone around building doorways and windows to seven metres. These have the potential to severely restrict where people could light up, said Kate Friars, Victoria director of parks and recreation.
The seven-metre buffer from buildings doesn’t leave much space downtown where people could light up, Friars said.
Asked by Coun. Ben Isitt where people will be allowed to smoke after the new bylaw is introduced, Friars said: “If it was enacted and enforced, they would be smoking in their own home or in their own vehicle. There will be some considerations whether you will be able to smoke walking down a sidewalk, for instance.”
Friars presented councillors this week with a list of almost 80 city parks and nine public squares where smoking will be outlawed this year when the amended bylaw is passed.
In addition to city parks, smoking would be banned in Centennial Square, Bastion Square, the Inner Harbour (Upper), Fernwood Square, Conference Centre Plaza, Crystal Plaza, CRD Square, Waddington Alley and Commercial Alley.
Other areas being considered include parking lots and parkades, and streets during events or block parties, boulevards such as Pandora Green, and Westsong Walkway.
Councillors asked that designated smoking areas be considered.
Some councillors expressed concerns that people living on the margins who already believe they attract too much attention from authorities, might feel further persecuted if smoking is banned from areas such as Pandora Green.
Isitt said the proposed CRD bylaw has “unintended consequences” for homeless people. It also potentially forces some people to smoke in their homes or in their cars — possibly around children.
“I think, in Beacon Hill Park, you have a number of senior citizens — I’ve been contacted by them — in James Bay, they’re addicted. They’re not quitting any time soon. Can they have a 20 by 20 footprint in the park to kill themselves in peace? To say it really crassly,” Isitt asked.
“I think two or three or four of these areas are reasonable given that we do have 10 per cent of our population that’s addicted to this substance. I’d prefer them to consume that substance outdoors rather than indoors.”
Designated smoking areas in states such as Hawaii seem to work well, Coun. Shellie Gudgeon said.
Mayor Dean Fortin, however, said the goal of the Clean Air Bylaw is to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke. No one envisions hiring dozens of enforcement officers to clamp down every time someone fires up a cigarette in a park, he said.
Fortin added that people have a responsibility to manage their addictions.
“If you’re a kleptomaniac, it doesn’t mean you get to go out and steal all the time. We’re not going to provide a store you can go and steal from. I think there’s a certain responsibility you have, whether you are addicted or not, to manage your addiction — whether it be cocaine, heroin, addiction to speeding. You have an expectation in society to manage that.”
