Under the guise of protecting residents from second-hand smoke indoors and out, Ottawa health officials have proposed a wide-ranging - and potentially expensive - solution to a problem that largely doesn't exist.

Public health officials want to create smoke-free spaces at more than 1,000 city parks and four beaches, as well as more patios and city facilities. The regulations would be enforced with fines, although Linda Anderson, the city's chief of bylaw and regulatory services, noted that the department expects a high level of voluntary compliance.

Which raises the question, why, then, is a bylaw needed at all? Along with a bylaw comes the cost of sending out bylaw officers - who already have their hands more than full - to enforce it.

Cigarette smoke is a health hazard, as the city's medical officer of health Dr. Isra Levy notes, but it is surely not the same hazard outside where there is the option of moving away as it is inside a confined, less-well-ventilated space.

The city should concentrate its smoking bylaws on confined spaces and let voluntary compliance, and common sense, do the trick outdoors. Anyone who attempts to light a cigarette near a busy playground will not soon forget the wrath of justly outraged parents. No bylaw officer could be as efficient or effective.

And combing the city's beaches to scout out rogue smokers seems like overkill. Those who are offended by the smoke can simply move to another part of the beach, or ask the smoker to butt out - a solution that seems to be working already.

Nor is there good evidence that second-hand smoke at Ottawa playgrounds and on beaches has been a serious problem. About 15 per cent of Ottawa residents smoke, according to city health officials. Many of those who do are conscientious about keeping their second-hand smoke away from others, especially children.

Voluntary compliance could be encouraged by putting up signs at parks and beaches reminding people not to smoke around children, which would probably prevent most problems.

And that would free up staff and dollars to enforce some of the municipal health regulations - around the growing number of tattoo and piercing parlours popping up in the city, for example - that require routine enforcement.

City staff have better things to do than prowl parks and beaches to make sure no one is lighting up.