Smoking is an addiction and for all of my life I could never figure out why anyone liked puffing away at cigarettes or anything else of that nature.
Many years ago, when I was a cub reporter for The Suburban, I covered the adoption of a then groundbreaking non-smoking bylaw in Côte Saint-Luc. The late Councillor Eric Helfield championed this legislation and it spread to other municipalities.
A few weeks ago some constituents contacted me to advise that there were people smoking cannabis at Rembrandt Park. They wanted to know what we could do about it. Well at that time the Liberal government's legalization of cannabis held the upper hand. I told them to be patient and that our council would be strengthening our own smoking bylaw to cover this. At our most recent monthly meeting we did just that!
Pursuant to the adoptions of the Cannabis Act (federal) and the Act to constitute the Sociéte québécoise du cannabis, to enact the Cannabis Regulation Act and to amend various highway safety-related provisions, our council decided to amend our smoking by-law to incorporate provisions for the consumption of cannabis.
Council has decided that the same provisions for smoking tobacco will apply to consuming cannabis. A similar amendment was made to by-law 2374 for electronic cigarettes. Smoking (cigarettes, electronic cigarettes and cannabis) will be prohibited in the following place as per the new by-law:
Any place as indicated within the Provincial Tobacco Act and any of its amendments (all of which apply on the entire territory of Côte Saint-Luc); All Laundry Rooms of Apartment Buildings; All elevators, escalators, or stairways in any Building or part thereof; All Lobbies, Reception areas, halls hallways, or stairwells in any Building or office or part thereof; Lunch Counters; Food Courts; Transit shelters; Any playground, splash pool or sports activity; In all municipal parks, during, a special event, green spaces, municipal dog runs, community Gardens; and All municipal outdoor pools.
The appropriate prohibition signs will also be updated to reflect these changes.
I am proud of our council for taking this position. And by the way, none of our nine members smoke!
Here is a link to the new bylaw.
