You may soon need to back up a little further from the entrances of some recreation facilities around the city when lighting up a cigarette. Recreation Facility Manager Kylee Haining says a change to a bylaw could move the smoking location from 5 metres to 10 metres away from doors.
“What we’ve done at the Coca Cola Centre already is move the ash trays further away. Naturally, the smokers will migrate where the ash trays are. It is not that much further that it is a terrible inconvenience but it will make it so people don’t have to go through the gauntlet of smoke.”
The move would happen for the Coca Cola Centre, Eastlink Centre, Gymniks, Dave Barr Community Centre and the Leisure Centre. Haining says the first steps will involve education about where people can smoke.
“It can result in a penalty but initially, we are going change the signage and do a soft launch of it. We will cut some slack for a period of time. I think some people got used to the 5 metres.”
She adds that they are working on being able to let security guards on duty be able to issue bylaw tickets for rule breakers.
The change to the bylaw would also include e-cigarettes.
The city will look at the change at their next council meeting.