Capital Regional District directors are a step closer to snuffing out smoking in some outdoor public spaces, including on beaches and in parks.
The CRD’s planning, transportation and protective services committee on Wednesday endorsed a staff recommendation to extend the CRD’s Clean Air bylaw to include all parks, public playgrounds, public squares and beaches.
The revised bylaw would also extend to seven metres from three metres the buffer zone for smoking near doorways, open windows and air intakes.
“People are being exposed to measurable levels of second-hand smoke right within our parks across the Island,” chief medical health officer Dr. Richard Stanwick told the committee.
Two of the nine committee members present — Victoria Coun. Geoff Young and Metchosin Mayor John Ranns — opposed the extension. The recommendation is expected to go to the CRD board May 8 for ratification.
Ranns said he didn’t agree with the expansion of the bylaw and that enforcement on beaches would be difficult and costly. “I’ve been here a long time and we’ve seen it move and move and move. … And I think we’ve moved beyond the point of sensibility here — particularly with the beaches,” Ranns said.
“If the intention is an outright ban, then let’s talk about an outright ban.”
Metchosin permits beach fires and outdoor burning, Ranns said, wondering if the CRD’s next step would be to ban that because of particulate matter.
Young said he would consider an extension to playgrounds and playing fields, but couldn’t support the proposal because it was too broad.
“When we get to regulating smoking on beaches in the winter, which we would be doing under this bylaw, or very little-used parks far from people, we’ve passed the point of a public health issue and we’re on to behaviour modification,” he said.
But other committee members were enthusiastic in their support.
Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin called the bylaw a reasonable step and noted that enforcement would be complaint-based. Simply passing the bylaw would empower citizens to ask someone who is smoking to butt out, he said.
Saanich Coun. Vic Derman agreed, noting environmental factors contribute to higher cancer rates.
Unlike when it implemented its Clean Air bylaw in 1999, restricting smoking in restaurants and businesses, the CRD would not be a leader if it extends the ban to parks.
Several jurisdictions in B.C., including Duncan, Nanaimo, Tofino, Powell River and Greater Vancouver, already ban smoking in parks and on beaches.
