Council will mull toke-free status for public places

Long list includes parks, festivals, Churchill Square, schools, pools

Churchill Square, the Edmonton Valley Zoo, cemeteries, skate parks and even outdoor festival venues are on a long list of proposed “no toke” zones being considered for Edmonton once cannabis becomes legal.

The details of where, when and how city residents can smoke cannabis in public will be up for debate next Wednesday at city hall.

But the options proposed by city staff in a report released Thursday are stricter than the minimum provincial standards.

Under options proposed by Edmonton officials, smoking marijuana would be allowed on parkland — as long as it is true wilderness away from trails or where people gather. Even off-leash parks would be considered off-limits.

Coun. Scott McKeen, who represents downtown’s Ward 6, said he expects the rules approved in advance of pot legalization this summer will evolve over time.

“The bylaw ... will probably be fairly restrictive and loosen up in some areas over time and tighten up in some areas over time,” he said Thursday.

Alberta Health Services, McKeen said, advised the city to have more restrictive rules early on.

Places where citizens can’t light up a doobie are schools, playgrounds, sports fields, skate parks, bicycle parks, the zoo, cemeteries, golf courses, ski hills, outdoor theatres, outdoor swimming pools, water spray parks, seasonal skating rinks, off-leash parks, Sir Winston Churchill Square, Fort Edmonton Park, John Janzen Nature Centre, Muttart Conservatory and many parts of the river valley.

Some festivals will have designated areas where people will be allowed to light up.

“Administration would then implement a process for designating these ‘smoking areas,’ which may be used in the context of festivals,” the report states.

The report recognizes that such a high level of restriction could be challenged in court and also carries a risk of lower levels of compliance.

“The city has arguments to defend any such challenge but this level of restriction is untested,” the report states.

A survey conducted by the city in February found that people didn’t support allowing pot consumption near sports fields, sidewalks and high pedestrian areas, although it found that people did support smoking on parkland.

McKeen said striking the right balance next week at city council’s community and public services committee meeting on the topic will be a challenge.

There will be residents living in highrises who will demand that something be done about smoking in their buildings, for example, and there will be groups who say that the city allows smoking too close to a church or a playschool.

McKeen said he is concerned people who come downtown to enjoy a nice meal or go to the Winspear Centre for a show will get “accosted in a cloud of skunk and be outraged.”

“And I get all that,” he said.

“It’s just going to take a while for this radical change in culture to settle in but it’s kind of like our smoking bylaw and it’s kind of like public consumption of alcohol.”