Strong support for landlords

Majority of Atlantic Canadians say property owners should have ability to ban pot smoking indoors

Seven in 10 Atlantic Canadians support landlords having the right to alter current lease agreements to ban the smoking of marijuana in their buildings, once legalized.

Those numbers are according to a new survey conducted by Corporate Research Associates (CRA) Inc.

There has been considerable debate about whether landlords should have the right to alter current lease agreements to ban smoking cannabis in their buildings.

Currently, lease agreements

do not contain language concerning marijuana due to its illegal status.

Overall, 72 per cent of Atlantic Canadians support landlords having the right to alter current lease agreements, with 44 per cent of residents expressing complete support.

Almost one-quarter (23 per cent) of residents oppose landlords having the right to alter current lease agreements for this reason.

Across Atlantic Canada, a majority of residents in Prince Edward Island (72 per cent), Newfoundland and Labrador (74 per cent), Nova Scotia (73 per cent) and New Brunswick (68 per cent) support altering lease agreements to ban smoking marijuana indoors.

Across the population, levels of support in this regard are elevated among residents with higher household incomes and those with higher levels of education.

These results are part of the CRA Atlantic quarterly, an independent telephone survey of Atlantic Canadians.

This survey was based on a telephone sample of 1,501 adult Atlantic Canadians, conducted from Feb. 1 to 28, with overall results accurate to within plus/minus 2.5 percentage points, 95 out of 100 times.