Edmonton to invoke stiffer curbs on tobacco, cannabis in public places

EDMONTON A new, widespread ban on cigarette smoking in parks was approved by city council Tuesday as a byproduct of a debate on cannabis regulations.

In a 7-6 vote, council decided to restrict cannabis and tobacco smoking in any park where children are likely to congregate.

That means as of Oct. 17, smoking of any substance will be banned in parks with a playground such as Hawrelak Park, parks with an offleash area like Terwillegar Park, in parks with sports fields or in school yards.

Smokers will have to move to a nearby sidewalk or walking path outside the park to light up. That affects two-thirds of Edmonton’s 1,050 parks.

Smoking will also be banned on public sidewalks within 10 metres of a door, window, bus stop or patio. That means busy streets like Whyte Avenue, for example, will only have a couple of locations where smoking is permitted.

A ticket for breaking the bylaw is $250.

The debate was tense. Coun. Jon Dziadyk tried to get council to at least provide a designated smoking zone in Hawrelak Park, but that was pushed to early next year for debate.

He was frustrated with the restrictions.

“We’re really just isolating people. It’s tyranny of the majority,” he said, adding that people are addicted to tobacco and need to smoke somewhere. If that’s in their backyard it will affect neighbours. “Now we’re saying you can only smoke in your living room and that’s going to expose more children.”

Coun. Sarah Hamilton also worried the rules are “squeezing people out of the public space.”

She met a young woman recently who was heading into the river valley to smoke a joint. It was a treatment for back pain but she faced a 45-minute bus ride to get home to smoke. She wanted a quiet place, not near children, but close enough to other pedestrians for safety.

Those people need options, Hamilton said.

“We don’t have to make it easy for everyone but I think we might end up squeezing people into positions where they cannot help but violate the law. I don’t think that is a good law.”

Ryan Pleckaitis, Edmonton’s director of complaints and enforcement, estimates enforcement could take 12 more community peace officers.

But that depends on “the appetite from council to be heavy handed.”

The city will start with a public education campaign and signage.

Council’s community services committee first proposed cannabis smoking rules that allowed it in parks, but kept it off sports fields and 30 metres from playgrounds.

Coun. Michael Walters introduced the additional restrictions at council, saying they better align with the city’s stated goal of keeping smoking away from children so the behaviour is not normalized. Aligning cannabis and tobacco regulations will make enforcement easier, he said, and these rules still provide more places to consume cannabis in public than before legalization.

The ban on smoking within 10 metres of a door, window, bus stop or patio will make it challenging to find locations to smoke on Whyte Avenue and Jasper Avenue, said Mayor Don Iveson, who also voted in favour of the restrictions.

But that’s where the city is getting complaints now, he said. “You’re walking through plumes of smoke. … That’s where people congregate and it would have been a huge issue.”