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TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2016 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
Cole Wagner/Herald
BUTT OUT
Anti-smoking bylaw headed to adoption Michael Potestio THE MERRITT HERALD
City council is preparing to tell smokers to butt out in parks and public spaces. At its regular meeting Tuesday (June 28) council voted in favour of giving three readings to an amending bylaw that will implement anti-smoking regulations. Many members of council described the bylaw as a good first step, but one thought it didn’t go far enough. Coun. Linda Brown said she was disappointed that the bylaw presented by staff didn’t go beyond prohibition in parks. “The idea was to take this a step further and make it a lot stronger in terms of trying to de-normalize the idea of smoking,” Brown said at the meeting. “We were looking at the potential for not walking down
the street with a cigarette in your hand similar to what we do with the liquor laws,” she said. The bylaw calls for the prohibition of smoking in city parks, playgrounds, public squares, greenspaces and footpaths, and includes e-cigarettes and hookah pipes. Implementing these new smoking regulations would call for signage posted in the affected areas. Corporate officer Melissa Miles said that about 20 signs would need to be installed at the cost of about $120 each. Coun. Diana Norgaard questioned how this bylaw would be enforced, to which Coun. Goetz replied that he believed it will probably have to be shame-driven by members of the public. “I don’t think we expect one bylaw officer to police everything,” Goetz said. Merritt currently doesn’t have any legislation in place regulating smoking in its parks.
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The bylaw was brought forward via a notice of motion made by Coun. Brown this spring after a representative made a presentation to council requesting it adopt such a bylaw. Only Coun. Dave Baker voted in opposition to the readings, and said he felt the new regulations should be tested out in only one of the city’s parks. Brown said she’d support the new regulations, but hoped it would be made stronger in the future. According to provincial legislation, smoking is prohibited within three metres of any doorway, open window or air intake of a public place or workplace, a report in the council agenda reads. The reports also notes that many communities in B.C. such as Nanaimo, West Kelowna, Salmon Arm and Richmond have implemented smoking regulations in parks and playgrounds.
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