Monthly Archive for February, 2010

At the last Coquit­lam coun­cil meet­ing, Coun­cil­lor Robin­son motioned to con­sider a smok­ing by-law for the City of Coquit­lam.  Here is the full text of the motion from Jan­u­ary 18, 2010:

Whereas 82% of Cana­di­ans do not smoke;

And whereas it has long been rec­og­nized that sec­ond hand smoke con­tains over 4000 chem­i­cals includ­ing 50 known chem­i­cals to cause cancer;

And whereas senior lev­els of gov­ern­ment have taken actions under their respec­tive juris­dic­tions to pro­tect cit­i­zens from sec­ond hand smoke such as the Fed­eral gov­ern­ments Non-Smokers Health Act passed in 1988 and recently strength­ened in 2007 ban­ning smok­ing and more recently smok­ing rooms from their work­places and the Provin­cial gov­ern­ment recently amended the Motor Vehi­cle Act to ban smok­ing in vehi­cles where a minor (under 16 years of age) is present;

And whereas the Fraser Health Author­ity sup­ports lim­it­ing expo­sure to sec­ond hand smoke;

And whereas smok­ing restric­tions increase the moti­va­tion for smok­ers to quit or cut­back, decreases neg­a­tive role mod­el­ing for chil­dren, pro­tects the envi­ron­ment and reduces litter;

And whereas direct enforce­ment from the munic­i­pal­ity may not be nec­es­sary as expe­ri­ence with out­door and indoor smoke-free laws has shown that the by-law itself is enough to deter most peo­ple from smok­ing. In addi­tion, peer pres­sure aris­ing from the com­mon under­stand­ing that the space is smoke-free also deters peo­ple from smoking:

There­fore be it resolved that the City of Coquit­lam develop a ban on smok­ing on pub­lic patios and spaces where minors (under 16 years of age) might be present;

And that the City of Coquit­lam invite munic­i­pal­i­ties in Metro Van­cou­ver that have yet to develop smok­ing bans to con­sider such a ban;

And that the City of Coquit­lam ask the Province to con­sider a ban on smok­ing in all pub­lic spaces.

As much as I do not like peo­ple who smoke in pub­lic places, I believe that this by-law will (a) drive con­sumers away; and (b) limit the rights and free­doms that are guar­an­teed under the con­sti­tu­tion.  I believe that instead of ban­ning smok­ing from our city, our city coun­cil should get the pub­lic aware that smok­ing is bad and try to dis­cour­age it.

Although it is going to be dis­cussed today at the Coquit­lam Coun­cil meet­ing, please com­ment what you think about this by-law.