Council, with the exception of Coun. Morgan Nagel, gave the green light to update the town’s smoking bylaw to include no smoking on town-owned lands that are used for recreation.
The bylaw includes e-cigarettes and applies to the Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre (SLSFSC), the Cochrane Arena, baseball diamonds and soccer fields.
It also includes adjacent parking lots – so lighting up behind the wheel could result in a bylaw ticket.
Coun. Jeff Toews put forward the motion prompting the change, citing that it was time for Cochrane to fall in line with what Calgary WinSport already has in place.
Nagel took the reins on seeking feedback from the public through social media – where concerns rose over the enforceability of such a bylaw and what business the government has to butt in to peoples’ personal choices to smoke or not to smoke.
“Designated smoking areas do not work,” said Toews, who brought out the big guns at council – research figures from the Centre for Disease Control and Health Canada.
“There is no risk-free level of second-hand smoke,” he said, adding that municipal government is not interfering with the right of a person to smoke: only protecting the majority of citizens who have no choice but to inhale second-hand fumes.
Toews added that the federal government is actively working toward getting the number of Canadians who light up down to five per cent of the total population; according to Stats Canada 18.1 per cent of Canadians identify as smokers as of 2014.
Robin Mitchell, general manager of SLSFSC, penned a letter to council last month advocating for the current bylaw – no smoking within five metres of doorways – to be maintained and for additional signage to be implemented.
Mitchell asserted that the new bylaw would cause his staff who choose to smoke to have to take extra long breaks in order to leave the property to light up; he also questioned the enforceability of the bylaw.
Coun. Ross Watson and Mayor Ivan Brooker expressed their support.
Watson said he was “dismayed” by Mitchell’s letter and views the distance restriction from doorways as an ineffective method of enforcement.
Brooker said given the number of children who attend the SLSFSC each day, allowing people to smoke on site “is one more thing that might entice kids to try it.”
