Halifax council mulls exempting tobacco smokers from bylaw changes

Halifax regional council is considering exempting tobacco smokers from an upcoming ban on smoking in public.

On Tuesday, it voted 11-5 in favour of a staff report to study an idea proposed by Dartmouth Centre Coun. Sam Austin.

Austin changed his mind on the smoking issue and said the city should let people smoke tobacco, but not marijuana, on its sidewalks.

It reverses his position of two weeks ago, where he voted for a bylaw banning all smoking and vaping on Halifax Regional Municipality property, including sidewalks, roads, parks and playgrounds.

"I never expected to be in this situation, advocating to not be as harsh on smoking," Austin said at a council meeting.

"I'm the kid in junior high that, when my best friend took up smoking, well shortly thereafter we drifted apart and went to different crowds. It's never been something that has appealed to me."

The ban, which the municipality aims to bring into force on Oct. 1, has been controversial. Some have called it heavy handed, and at least one bar owner has wondered where his staff and customers will be able to smoke cigarettes.

The request for a staff report doesn't change current plans for the ban.

"My understanding of the direction from the CAO, in light of council's existing direction, is to proceed with respect to implementation to be ready for Oct. 17," said John Traves, the municipality's director of legal services.

"If this motion passes, we will also draft a report and a recommendation with respect to essentially going forward with only a ban on cannabis or whatever the wording is, remove the restriction on smoking tobacco from that."

Earlier Tuesday, Austin said cannabis should be treated in a similar way to alcohol.

"You're not allowed to walk down the street drinking a beer; I don't see why you should be allowed to walk down the street smoking cannabis," Austin told CBC's Maritime Noon Tuesday.

Austin said response from his constituents has been mixed. Some love it, others think it a terrible idea.

He raised the issue at Tuesday's meeting.

Problems for renters who smoke

Austin said it made little sense to ban all smoking and vaping, and then create hundreds of smoking-allowed sections. "It feels not very practical, and very bureaucratic."

He wants his colleagues to revisit the issue and consider limiting the ban to smoking or vaping marijuana on HRM property and letting people smoke tobacco as usual.

On his website, he added that the new bylaw would also make it hard for tobacco smokers who rent apartments to smoke legally. The municipality says letting people smoke on private property would be left up to the property owner. 

Austin didn't have any suggestions about how bylaw officers might tell who in a group of smokers might be using marijuana and who might be using tobacco. But he said it was more about setting a standard than enforcing a bylaw.

"The enforceability of this is not going to be there anyway. What we're trying to do is set a community expectation," he said.

Austin said dog owners are rarely ticketed for not picking up after their pets, but that doesn't mean the bylaw compelling them to should be struck down.

YWCA raises safety issues

Miia Suokonautio, the executive director of the YWCA Halifax, said poor people will suffer under the bylaw. She said homeless people often can't stay in a shelter during the day, meaning they'll have few places to smoke.

"For us, this idea that even in public spaces, you're unable to smoke ... and you can be fined, you can be cited with nuisance bylaw violations, increases the scrutiny in the lives of people who already have so few options," she told CBC News.

Suokonautio said it could put women at risk, too. "If you're a woman at a nightclub and you've had something to drink and you go out to have a smoke and you're not allowed, where does she go, and is it safe?"

She said they sent their concerns to council Tuesday.

Halifax will launch a public education campaign about the new bylaws in September.  

U.S. city 'proud' of similar law in place since 2006

The City of Calabasas, Calif., has had a similar smoking ban in place since 2006, and Mayor Fred Gaines said it's worked "very well."

"We've had very few incidents over time and people are very, very accepting," he said in an interview. "It's really been something that I think has been very helpful and positive for the City of Calabasas, and has been copied and adopted in many cities around the United States."

The city, which has a population of about 25,000, uses signs to mark areas where smoking or vaping is allowed, Gaines said. People tend to gently enforce the ban by talking to those breaking the rules, he said.

"The first line of enforcement is for people to say to someone, 'Hey, there's no smoking in this area, please use the smoking area.' And that works 90-plus per cent of the time," he said.

"We've literally had one or two incidents where law enforcement needed to be involved in 10-plus years of the law being on the books."

In Calabasas, businesses can apply to establish a designated smoking area where the public or staff can light up. Multi-unit residential buildings can also get designated smoking areas.

"I think that it's turned out to be something we're very proud of," he said.

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